Destiny Bites
by Jociejayy04
Summary: After Alexa's grandparents die of a bizarre death, she is forced to go to Bradfield College in which her aunt works as a counselor. There, she meets an unusual guy and his friends. Alexa then comes to the realization that fantasy has become reality, and that DESTINY BITES!
1. Chapter 1: Farewell Home

Chapter 1:

Farewell Home

I closed the massive oak door with four carved rectangles in the middle with a lion doorknocker in between the carvings. I lightly stroked the wood one last time and pressed my palm against it. I took a step back and admired the structure before turning around to face Aunt Maggie leaning against her red Mini Cooper. Her eyes were watching attentively, her arms entwined with each other in front of her chest, feet pushed together in a thirty degree angle from the front wheel. I sighed and took hesitant steps away from the door that I will no longer open.

"Are you ready to say good-bye?" Aunt Maggie asked turning her head to her right to get a good look at my face.

"I don't think I'll ever be ready," I replied. She opened the passenger door for me. I put my right firm leg in first, slowly slid my ass down to the seat, and forced my left firm leg in. Aunt Maggie walked around the hood, stared at the one story olden house, and placed herself in the driver's seat. Once she turned the key in the ignition switch to the right the engine roared to life and became a sudden purr. We slowly pulled out of the driveway and I didn't dare look back.

"Sometimes, you have to spread your wings and fly away from everything you once hold dear to. If you don't, you'll never learn to let go, become independent, and strong," Aunt Maggie said a mile later.

"What if you just never want to let it go?" I asked.

"You can hold memories, but you have to be able to cope with knowing what was there no longer is there," she replied. I laid my head against the window pane watching every tree pass me by. I then starred up at the dull sky as it prepared itself to cry. I wouldn't mind. I needed to shed a few here and there. Aunt Maggie continued when I didn't say anything else.

"Mom and dad are at peace now. They would prefer that we not dwell in sorrow, but continue on with our life and fulfill our destiny. That's what they want, for us to be headstrong and keep moving forward. They are watching over us beside your mother. They are our guardian angels now." I didn't know if she was saying it to comfort herself, me, or both. She didn't seem so shaken up from my grandparents' death. I figured she must be putting up a shield so that I wouldn't worry myself, or maybe she was still in denial. Nonetheless, I am the only family she has now, and she's the only one I have.

"Where did you say we were going?" I tried to change the subject.

"Bradfield College, it's a boarding school for ages thirteen to eighteen. I happen to be the counselor and was able to pull a few strings to get you administered. That way you'll have a place to stay and I'll be around." I nodded.

"How much longer will it take to get there?"

"About two more hours," she shrugged.

"Whoopee," I said sarcastically with a twirl of my index finger in the air.

For the first hour we didn't speak. The only noise that filled the awkward silence was Aunt Maggie's radio that spilled Mozart and Beethoven. It was the same classical music that filled the old house whenever grandma was painting her random muses. It made my heart ache like if someone kept putting pressure on it. After the second hour, Beethoven chimed down and I noticed green open fields and trees a shade of green, brown, orange, and yellow dancing with the wind at the same time Mozart began to play. I spot an immense building that looked like a cottage. It had zigzag patterns in squares hiding behind an X with a line down the middle. Aunt Maggie pulled up to the front where there was a gate that looked like tall arrows pointing upwards. As she drove inside it looked like we entered a small village. Buildings looked like cottages attached to each other and street lanes on every corner. Some were brick houses and some the same texture as the entrance building. My heart sank to my toes and my green hazel eyes were pulling out of their sockets.

"Welcome home," Aunt Maggie said.

"This isn't home," I said after a minute.

"Well, soon it will feel like it," she said with shame. A humph managed to escape from my lips. Aunt Maggie drove for five more minutes until we came upon a scarlet three story brick building. There was a round octagon trampoline with a high net circling the trampoline on the edges near a tree in front. When we got inside, the walls were a dark red orange. There was a United Kingdom flag hanging from the ceiling next to a flag that had an image of an almost shield shape with two eagles on either side of an almost shaped diamond with an X inside and circling it is a strip that has the words '_Benedictus es, O Domine doce me Statuta Tua' _meaning '_You are blessed, Lord: teach me your laws'._

We made our way to the elevator that took us to the second floor. There were a few girls lingering around wearing plain navy blue boxed skirts, and black panty hose. Some girls wore a long sleeve white buttoned up collar shirt with the skirt and panty hose. Others wore the same clothes but with a dark navy blue cotton vest over the white sleeved shirt, and others wore the same clothes with a dark navy blue coat over the vest and shirt. Not my taste in fashion.

We walked down the red orange halls passing by six doors left and right. We stopped in front of a door that had 7A nailed onto it. Once you open the door to your right a tall wooden closet furniture lays against the dark beige wall, to your left is a desk the shape of a right angle with a black right triangle on top of it. Further in, there is a twin bed parallel to the desk resting on top of a light wooden rectangular base with two drawers. Across from the bed is another right angle desk to the far corner wall, a wooden boarded nailed to the wall with shelves, and a big round clock hanging on. In between the desk and the closet was another similar bed from the first one. The first one; however, had a brown and dark turquoise zebra print blanket hugging the bed and brown pillows laying against each other. In front of the desk and the end of the occupied bed was a window with two sliding window shields and on both sides of the window were dark turquoise curtains hanging stiff.

"Welcome to your new room," Aunt Maggie said with a smile. I returned a half smile.

"Your roommate is Lexie. I'm pretty sure you two will get along just fine," she added. I was kind of pretty sure as well since above from the bed was a poster of Sleeping with Sirens on the wall.

"Well, I'll leave you alone to unpack. I have paperwork and students to attend to. Have fun." She disappeared through the door. Fun wasn't even part of my vocabulary right now. I let myself fall backwards with open arms on the naked bed. I turned my head to the right and starred out the window. The clouds began to disperse clear teardrops. I let mine fall as well.

"Farewell home," I whispered.


	2. Chapter 2: Start of Something New

Chapter 2:

Start of Something New

The clock stroke 7:00PM when I finally had the energy to unpack my belongings. I began first with taking out my wardrobe that my grandparents always detested, but thought of it as just a phase. I hung my sweaters in the wooden closet and hid my jeans and sweats in one drawer and shirts with my interior clothing in another. I proceeded to pull out my cheetah print blanket and fold it nicely above the twin mattress. Fortunately, it blended well with the theme in the room. I then coated my pillows with a dirty beige cover and placed them against the wall. I took out the picture frame of me with my grandparents in their backyard swinging on the thin sofa that hang from metal bars. Their lips were spread up to their ears; they looked young, healthy, and happy. It was hard to place those same features on the bodies that were found at the olden house lying helpless on the dusty wooden floor.

I took out a small picture of my mother that my grandparents had given me when I was thirteen. I never met her, but from the way she posed in the picture, it gave me a sense that she was someone who enjoyed every second of their life. Her smile was thin and bright, her skin soft and light tan, her ash brown hair twirled down above her shoulder, her eyes pure hazel outlined with dark eye liner and mascara, she was beautiful, an almost reflection of me, but older. If only I had the chance to know her, I wouldn't feel so abandoned. Another tear escaped from right eye.

"Can I help you?" a strong voice came from behind me. I spun around too fast that I dropped the picture frame with my right elbow. A tall girl with slick black hair down to her chest, white skin, light green eyes, and slimmed down body stood in front of me. She wore the simple skirt with black panty hose and the white buttoned up collar shirt, but she wore a black loose tie wrapped around in the inside of her collar.

"I'm Alexa, your new roommate," I replied softly picking up the frame.

"Ah, Ms. Bailey told me about you. I've seen you've made yourself comfortable," she said with a small smile.

"Not as comfortable as I wish I was," I replied with a half-smile. She made her way to her zebra print bed, climbed up and sat with her back against the pillows, legs stretched straight out, and her left ankle on top of her right one.

"It's always like that when you migrate somewhere new. You'll get used to it in like two weeks or so."

I sat on the corner edge of my cheetah print bed still holding my mother's picture. I looked out the window staring blankly ahead trying to think of something to say. It was quiet between me and her except for the loud laughing on the other side of the door.

"Talk about L.O.L," I finally said. I heard a chuckle come from the girl.

"That's Claudia. She's always laughing like a hyena for no reason. You'll get used to it too. Just try not to give her a reason to laugh, which is quite impossible, so try your best to avoid her. I'm Lexie by the way," She said calmly. I gave her a full smile this time.

"How long did it take for you to get used to all this?" I asked waving my hands everywhere like a maniac.

"It actually took me a full week. I owe it to Kayla."

"And Kayla is?" I motioned my left hand forward in a circular motion for her to explain.

"Kayla is my best friend ever since I showed up here three years ago. She came up to me on a rainy day when I was sitting by myself in the dinner room picking at the meatloaf they served that night. She introduced herself to me. Her dark brown straight hair fell past her shoulders, bangs split in half. Her eyes a beautiful shade of sky blue. She was very pale, still is. She's about 5'4, a thin almost curved body, and her smile a shade of pink. She's beautiful. I was surprised that she had spoken to me, but she's sweet. She introduced me to her friends and her brother. I finally felt like I belonged, and still do."

Lexie's smile grew wide as she finished telling me the story. I smiled also because there was a happy ending, cheesy, right? A happy ending is what I needed to hear right now, sue me.

"Speaking of Kayla," Lexie continued.

"I'm supposed to meet her and the boys at the rec. room." She hopped off the bed and fixed her thick bangs that fell over her right eye.

"There's a rec. room here?" I asked.

"Yeah, come on," she said like if it wasn't anything to be astounded about. She pulled my left arm out through the door, through the stairs, and out the building door. We walked for ten minutes. In the meanwhile, she pointed out the buildings we passed. There was a massive triangular long lengthen building with grey granite shades mixed with copper and windows that looked like the ones you would see in Chapels, it was the library. Then, we passed a modern abstract squared building that looked like they had sliced almost half of the top off sideways. It was a polished brown wooden wall on the top and white on the bottom, it was the science center. We had finally come across the rec room. It was a long rectangular building almost like the dorm.

When we walked in, the walls were pale white and red cottoned sofas were lying about. There were boys and girls in uniforms laughing and talking animatedly like if they were at a house party. We walked further in and I saw an immense plasma T.V. circled by red sofas that fit three people. Behind the plasma were cables that looked like veins coming out of the skull connecting to an Xbox 360 Kinect, Wii, or a PlayStation 3. There were also three air hockey tables paralleled to each other and behind was a large pool table. You could also see behind the pool table was another plasma T.V. but this one had two Dance Dance Revolution Mats like the ones at an arcade. It was a fancy kickback spot.

I noticed a tall dark haired girl making swift moves toward us. Her pink lips were spread wide showing perfectly straight white teeth. It was close to glistening like the girl from the Orbit commercial.

"Lexie, thank god you're finally here! The boys are chanting non-stop about how sexy lingerie makes a girl look hot even if they're not so decent looking! It's giving me a migraine, but it's also giving me a few tips on how to turn up the heat with Vlad," she fumed. She crossed her thin arms in front of her chest with a smirk. When she finally noticed me, her smirked transformed into the same smile she had on before.

"My apologies, I'm Kayla." She put her pale bony hand in front of me. I got a hold of it and my skin got Goosebumps. Her hand was Antarctic cold, but I pushed it aside. It's always cold in the U.K so I figured my hands were freezing as well.

"I'm Alexa," I said with a smile.

"She's my new roommate," Lexie added.

"Sweet, one more girl added to the group. Hallelujah," she praised. They pulled me, literally pulled me from my arms, to the three guys that were huddled around the pool table with long wooden pool sticks. Lexie ran up to a pale guy with shiny black hair that fell over his face. He was tall, about 5'9, thin but muscular. He was really cute. Lexie pecked him on his rosy pink lips and motioned me over.

"Alexa, Malik, Malik, Alexa," she said pointing back and forth. Malik nodded and I gestured a weak wave with a side smile. Kayla then pulled me by my left arm and introduced me to the other two guys

"This is my oh so loving boyfriend, Vlad," she said with flattering eyes.

"Vlad, this is Alexa," she finished.

"Hi," he said and put his pale hand in front of me. I shook it and it was just as cold as Kayla's. He was tall, about 6'0. He was also thin and cut, I could tell by his tightened long sleeve buttoned up shirt. His hair was soft, light ash brown. His eyes were a soft clear blue grey. His smile was also thin and pink like Kayla. He wasn't bad for a lad, especially with the double zero gages he had on his ears. It made him look bad ass, if I may say.

"This is my fraternal twin brother Mason." Kayla pointed to a guy leaning over the pool table. He was pale and muscular from what his uniform shirt let me see; his sleeves were rolled up to his elbow. He was tall also, about Vlad's height. His black short hair fell loose, his bangs sideways over his forehead. His lips were a rosy pink as well with snake bites clinging to them. But his eyes, his eyes were gorgeous. They were a shade of turquoise lined with black around them. They were bright and innocent, almost peaceful. I don't know how long I was staring, but I felt the blood behind my cheeks boil.

"Alexa, Earth to Alexa!" Kayla broke my trance. Mason's hand was stiff in front of me.

"I don't have coodies," his voice was soft and sweet.

"My apologies," I said shyly and reached slowly for his hand. I felt a spark of electricity run through my fingers like if I had just rubbed my feet against a carpeted floor, touched a metal bar and received a sudden shock. I quickly pulled my hand away, he did too.

"I'm sorry," he said.

"Well, Alexa, do you know how to play pool?" Kayla asked.

"Just stripes and solids," I responded.

"Great, so let's make it boys versus girls."

"You sure you can handle losing?" Mason shot at her.

"You mean if I'm sure I want to let you win," Kayla spit back.

"You don't have to. With the lack of experience you have of holding the stick to point and shoot, it's just enough."

"That's not what Vlad says." Kayla smirked and winked at Vlad.

"Oh, gross," Mason said with burrowed eyebrows.

"It's not like if you don't say inappropriate things," Kayla spat.

"It's okay when I say it because I'm a guy. That's what us, guys do," Mason defended.

"It's still rather annoying," she responded.

Mason was about to say something else before Lexie interrupted him.

"Are we going to play, or are we going to watch another smack down between Ken and Barbie?" Mason and Kayla stuck their tongues out to each other.

"I'm taking that as a yes, we can start the game," Lexie said. The girls took their boyfriends pool stick and made them go get one for themselves. Mason took the first hit and made a solid ball go in the corner of the pool table.

"Beginners luck," Kayla said. Mason smirked and winked. By the end of the game the girls won as I half sat on the edge of the pool table with my hands behind my back holding the pool stick so I can get a better aim for the black solid 8.

"Holy shit, we actually won!" Kayla and Lexie screamed in unison. They began to jump around in a circle while holding hands in mid-air.

"In your precious face," Kayla shot at Mason.

"I agree as well. My face is precious," Mason retorted.

"Cocky Bitch," Kayla sneered.

"Fat Turd." Kayla gasped and threw a solid ball at him. I flinched when I saw it hit him on the shoulder but he didn't bounce back in pain. Hell, it hurt me just looking at him.

"Ouch, didn't that hurt?" I asked worried.

"Nah, Kayla has a weak throw," he responded. Kayla darted him a cold stare.

"That didn't seem weak," I said. He lifted his shoulders and shrugged.

We began to clean up our area since the clock stroke 9:30PM. Everyone walked out together, but dispersed as they said their good-nights, even Lexie, who I was supposed to walk with, but left in a different direction with Malik. I must have had a panicked look on my face because Mason turned to me and said, "Don't worry; I can walk you to your dorm. Lexie will lag it to show up to your room. And by the looks of it, you have no idea where to go."

I looked down at the ground and said, "If you don't mind please? I'd appreciate it."

"Come on," he said.

We walked with no words being exchanged. My cheeks felt warm and the atmosphere was awkward. It wasn't until we were around the corner that he decided to say something.

"Where'd you learn to play like that?"

"Whenever my grandma was in the study painting a mural, my grandpa always pulled me into this small room where he had a mini bar and an old pool table. He taught me some of his tricks and how to calculate my aim. I was never good enough to beat him, but then again he was eighty years old, and with a lot of experience." I smiled at the thought of me and my grandpa moving around the table examining the pool balls as if they were a corpse. He had a glass of scotch on his left hand and I had apple juice in mine. He would smile a crooked smile when he knew he had a chance to score two or three balls in the pocket at the same time.

"Sounds like you're grandpa is a healthy old man, full of life," Mason said.

"He was," I said, my smile disappearing. He noticed the change and spoke fast.

"I'm sorry for your loss," he said simply.

"It's not your fault. It just happened recently and I haven't been able to deal with it."

"Old age?" he asked trying to not say the wrong thing.

"No. I honestly don't know what it was. It's quite bizarre, if you think about it. But I'd rather not talk about it right now." We got to the dorms and Mason walked me in all the way up to my door.

"Thank you," I whispered.

"No problem. I hope you had a good time tonight. Probably it will help to make you feel a little more comfortable to the new scene, new people," he spoke.

"I hope so too, good-night."

"Good-night." He turned and walked down the red orange hall, disappearing through the stairs. I made my way in and found my mother's picture on the floor near the corner edge in where I sat before Lexie yanked me out of the room. I picked it up and caressed the picture.

"It's the start of something new," I whispered to her.


	3. Chapter 3: New Girl

Chapter 3:

New Girl

I woke up the next morning to my phone blowing up 'Do it now remember later' by Sleeping with Sirens. I lazily turned to my left not realizing I was nearly on the edge of my bed, so I ended up falling on my back.

"Ahhhhh!"

"What?! What happened?! Why is it so dark in here?!" Lexie was sitting up holding an iron bat with her blindfold wrapped around her eyes and temple.

"Sorry. I just fell off my bed, and by the way you still have your blindfold on. And where did you get that bat?" I said quizzically while trying to unwrap myself from my cheetah print blanket.

"Oh, right," she said taking off her blindfold. After I accomplished the mission of getting free I turned on the small lamp on my drawer.

"Do you sleep with that thing?" I asked Lexie who was now pulling out her uniform from her second drawer.

"Yes I do. You never know when it will come in handy." I grabbed the uniform that I left on my desk the night before. I slipped on the black panty hose that took me a minute to roll them up all the way. I then stuck my legs inside the skirt and brought them up to my hips. After, I dug my right arm in the sleeve, threw it over my shoulders placing my left arm through the other sleeve. I grabbed my black leather combat boots and put them on. I noticed Lexie had left the room to the bathroom and ran after her. Once I got to the restroom there was a line for the sinks, awesome. I stood in line for ten minutes until I finally got a sink near the bathroom stalls. I brushed my teeth and gargled some minty fresh liquid at the end of my mouth and spit it out as soon as my tongue couldn't take the burn anymore.

I got to the room and Lexie was brushing her thick bangs to the right and proceeded to tie a ribbon around her head. I brushed my hair and teased it to make a small bump on the top of my head and it fell midway down my head when longer pieces of strand of hair fell past my shoulders. I clipped a black bow on my left side.

"You're ready to go?" Lexie asked. I nodded my head in reassurance. I followed her out and in front of the building was a white Chrysler with Malik in the driver's side.

"Why do we need a car?" I asked Lexie.

"Because if we walk to where the classes are it would take twenty minutes to get there and it's already 7:45AM." I made an o shape with my mouth and got inside the back seat. Lexie pecked Malik on his rosy pink lips and he nodded in the rearview mirror at me. I gave him a small wave. The guy doesn't seem to talk much, it's quite odd that someone like Lexie would be with him, but then again they probably were too busy snogging than actually having a real conversation.

Malik drove through narrow lanes until we finally got to a wide green opening. He parked the car in a small lot near a renaissance looking building that stretched long creating the shape of half a square. We walked down corridors with tall navy blue lockers up against the beige walls. Students were lurking around by open lockers and classroom doors.

"What's your first class?" Lexie asked me. I pulled out a small slip of paper from my black sideways bag that Aunt Maggie had left for me on my desk.

"I have room 207, English with Mr. Schwartz," I answered. Her smile turned into a frown.

"Well, there's one class down that we don't have together," she said.

"But, Kayla is in that class." I smiled to the thought of not having to stand in front of the classroom looking for a seat, pondering whether that one is taken or not. We continued down the hall until the warning bell rang. Lexie walked me to my class with Malik on her heels.

"Good luck girl," Lexie said and continued down the hall with Malik folding his left hand into her right one.

"Alexa!" I heard my name be called in the far side of the room. There were wide steps like risers with desks on them aligned in columns. I searched the faces that were sat down already and came across Kayla's pale glowing face. She was waving at me like a Farris wheel on ecstasy. I smiled and waved back. I walked to the middle of the room where a wooden desk stood with a black laptop and pieces of paper scattered all over. In the chair that looked like a miniature throne sat a young pale man with brown hair pushed back with mouse. He was wearing a black dress shirt with the top two buttons undone. He wore black slacks and shiny black dressy shoes. As I approached him he looked up at me with warm golden eyes. He flashed white teeth within his thin pink lips. I couldn't help but smile back. It was impossible to believe he was a teacher.

"Good morning. I take it you are Alexa," he stated. He put his palm side up and I placed the paper on top. He signed it with a swift motion in his hand and handed it back to me. He then stood up and walked lightly to a book shelf paralleled to his desk and got a hold of a thick brown book. He made his way back to me and handed me the heavy book.

"Make sure to put your name on the backside of the cover. You will need this at some point in this class. Now, take a seat on that empty seat in the far corner at the top of the step," he said. I nodded and made my way up the steps. I could feel piercing eyes on my back like if I were about to do a stunt that no one else had the guts to do. Kayla was shaking on her seat as I sat next to her.

"I'm so glad you have this class!" she squealed. I chuckled a bit.

"What class do you have after this?"

"Ummm…Room 216, Creative Writing, Mr. Kim," I replied. She squealed even louder that a couple of heads starred back at us with dagger eyes.

"What is it?" I whispered trying not to interrupt Mr. Schwartz as he began with his lesson.

"We all have that class together!" she said loud, and here I was trying not to be rude.

"Ms. Hastings, please let's not begin this again," Mr. Schwartz pleaded.

"My apologies," Kayla said. He turned back around to the chalkboard where he had Ethos written in big letters.

"What does he mean by begin this again?" I asked her.

"I tend to be quite loud which makes me and Mr. Schwartz bud heads because he tries to be louder than me." She had a smirk on her face. I couldn't think of anyone louder than her. For the whole class period Mr. Schwartz went on about Ethos, Pathos, and Composition. Meanwhile, Kayla kept yapping like a Chihuahua in my ear about who from the group had the same class as me. Apparently, from what she had yelled earlier we all have the same class for second period. For third period I have Guitar class with Lexie and Malik. For fourth I have Government with Mason and Vlad. For fifth period I have Physiology with Mason, Kayla, and Vlad. And finally for sixth I have Psychology with Mason. I found it peculiar to how many classes I had with Mason, but I thought it was just my luck. The bell rang and Kayla and I walked to our second class. The room was simple with the same risers with desks in columns. The teacher was talking to a light tanned boy about a book he was holding in his hand. I walked and introduced myself and handed him the paper. He signed it on the back of the book he was holding and told me to sit on the far side corner desk next to Mason who was writing on a wool skinned book. Kayla sat on the desk in front of me with Vlad on her left side. Lexie and Malik sat below them. For the whole period we had to write a scene with sensory details and gestures that a character will make. The lights were turned down and people were on their phones and iPods to get in the mood. The bell rang once again and I walked with Lexie and Malik to Guitar Class.

I walked in and handed the paper to a short chubby man with white grey hair falling above his shoulder. He has sky blue eyes and is not pale but light skinned. He was sitting on a high grey stool near a dusty dark wooden piano with stacks of paper on top of it. He welcomed me and assigned guitar number ten to me. He then gestured me to a far side corner chair next to Lexie and Malik.

"Now don't go thinking I'm an old fart and expect you to master the guitar, but I would appreciate you not talking or playing while I talk, not be late for my class, and simply just piss me off," he laughed on the last words. I nodded and pulled out a black Fender guitar case from a triangular cardboard box. I unzipped the case and pulled out a light acoustic guitar with nylon strings. Mr. Sierrer came to the back to check if it needed to be tuned. I strummed the strings with a medium pick and it gave a sudden shake with a low vibration. He made an eerie face and tuned it for me.

"Have you played before?" asked Malik. I turned to face him with my eyes open wide. It was the first words he had said to me. His voice was velvety and soft like Mason's.

"My grandpa taught me a few chords, but I never really learned to move fast between them and strum at the same time," I answered.

"Well, it's not so complicated if you practice enough and imagine where your fingers are going to be placed next on the frets," he said. My ears couldn't believe what they were hearing.

"Well, I am a fast learner," I told him. He smiled and began to play Wonderwall by Oasis on the guitar. His left side fingers were fluent on switching between chords and his right hand strummed up and down fluently as well. He then began to sing and his voice was angel like. I pictured this was the way he won Lexie over.

The bell rang fifty-five minutes later. I put my guitar back in its case and box on a top shelf near the double open doors. I walked with Lexie and Malik down to a Dinner room with leather brown benches and long tables standing paralleled to each other. We walked all the way in the room where a table stood beside a massive window. Kayla and Vlad were already seated on the bench next to the window. Lexie and Malik scooted next to them, and I sat across from them. Five minutes later Mason showed himself and sat two inches away from me.

"How has it been so far?" Kayla asked.

"It's been pretty chill. Nothing new that I haven't heard of," I responded. People in chef suits came out from some brown double doors holding platters of sandwich subs, fries, and fruit. They placed them in middle of the tables with plates and cups. Then, they brought pitchers of soft drinks and placed them near the platters. As they left, me and Lexie piled our plates with a half five inch sub and two handfuls of seasoned fries. We then filled our 8oz. cups up to the top edge with coke. I noticed Kayla, Vlad, Malik, and Mason didn't fill up their plates or their cups like me and Lexie. They had like ten pieces of fries on their plate and little than half of the half of sub I had. One thing they didn't do was fill their cups with soda. Instead, they were given some dark bottles with liquid in them. I turned to look at Lexie, but she was too busy stuffing her mouth with five pieces of sizzled fries followed by a bite of her grilled chicken sub with a piece of fresh cut lettuce, round red tomatoes, green avocado, and light mayo before she took a gulp of her coke. I shook it off and proceeded to stuff my small mouth with food as well.

We ate and the girls gossiped about a group of bimbos that sat farther away from us in the same table while the boys talked about the soccer team at the school. The bell rang and everyone got up from their seat and made their way through the double doors we had come through, not the one where the chefs came out of. Malik and Lexie left down the corridor hand in hand waving good-bye with their unoccupied one. Kayla, Vlad, Mason, and I walked a few doors down. We dropped off Kayla before we proceeded to a class two doors down. Vlad pecked her on her pink lips and we waved good-bye.

We stepped into another room with steps full of desks in columns. I walked down to a desk facing the door near the beige wall. A tall handsome man sat on a wooden cushioned chair, his fingers typing away on his silver laptop. His hair was a dirty blond, his front hair brushed to the side. He was pale as well, but had misty blue eyes. When he looked up to smile at me, his lips were full and perfect white teeth appeared between his pink lips. My breath was taken back. I handed him the slip as he signed it. He grabbed a red government book from the stack near the foot of his desk. He told me the same phrase Mr. Schwartz had said to me and pointed to a far side corner desk like the one in Mr. Schwartz room next to Mason. I made my way up the steps feeling piercing eyes once again on my back. I took my seat and stared blankly ahead at the chalkboard.

Mason hadn't said a word to me or even looked at me as a matter of fact. Vlad only turned to me once and smiled then looked back at the chalkboard. I sat on the desk for almost an hour taking notes about our government, which I had no clue of what he was talking about. After the bell rang, I made my way down the steps behind Vlad and Mason.

"How does your hand feel?" Vlad asked me. I caressed my wrist and cracked my knuckles against each other.

"Not so bad," I replied and he only smiled. Kayla caught up to us and we walked down the corridor.

"Don't you want to put those books in your locker?" Vlad asked me.

"I don't have one," I replied.

"Here," he said and took the heavy English and Government book down to a top navy locker where he placed them. He ripped a piece of paper off his notebook and wrote down the locker number with a combination.

"Now you do," he said.

"Thanks," I told him. We kept walking and got to room 104. The room had posters of the human body with explicit drawings. On the front of the room there stood a skeleton on a pole. I walked to a thick desk on the corner where a thin pale woman the height of Kayla stood fixing some papers. Her hair was black straight down passing her shoulders. She had big round eyes with light amber irises. Her mouth was big where just with a small smile you could see her perfect white teeth. I noticed she was gifted from her chest. I handed her the piece of paper and she signed it. She gestured her bony fingers to a far side corner next to Mason on the top of the steps like Government and English and Creative Writing Class. What a coincidence.

Ms. Phillipson spoke about the skin on how to take care of it for Fit Friday. I learned that you have to exfoliate everywhere in your body when you shower twice a day or more if you had sweated a lot. After you finish exfoliating you must apply lotion everywhere or moisturize. She then talked about washing your face day and night to prevent your acne and its okay to apply lotion on your face but it's best for it not to be scented. The class was pretty interesting and she was very energetic. The bell rang signaling to go to our last class. It was already 2:14PM when it rang. I walked with Vlad and Mason to room 202. I was getting tired of walking back and forth repeatedly.

I walked into a dull white room with collage posters hanging on the walls with drawings of food, phones, and shoes. Some sort of advertisements. I handed my paper to a tall dirty blonde pale curvy woman. She signed the paper and once again like all the other teachers motioned me to a far sided corner next to Mason. It was getting awkward by the minute when I walked up the stairs. Especially when this guy with light brown hair that fell above his shoulder and his soft bangs fell over his left eye, which were a soft emerald green, and was pale and thin, but through his baby blue buttoned up shirt I could tell he worked out, slapped my right butt cheek and said, "Hey new girl, want me to give you a tour?"

I turned around to tell him off, but I noticed Mason growled at him through his white perfect teeth. He literally growled, which scared me but seemed to have made the other guy give him a cold stare. That was all I heard come out through Mason's rosy pink mouth all day. When the bell finally rang indicating school was done, I got up fast and headed to the dorms.

When I finally got to my dark room, I threw my bag near the edge of my bed and threw myself the way I did when Aunt Maggie dropped me off the first day. Inhale. I looked at the picture frame of me and my grandparents. Exhale. I looked up at the bumpy ceiling. Inhale. I closed my eyes to take a nap. Exhale.

I was shaken awake by Lexie at 6:00PM. I hadn't realized how tired I was.

"Wake up!" she said shaking me some more.

"I'm up, I'm up," I said restlessly.

"You must have had a long day," she said.

"Now what would make you think that?" I told her sarcastically, but she must have not heard the sarcasm in my voice.

"Mason said you literally flew out the door without saying bye or anything," she replied to my sarcastic question. I realized she had said Mason told her about me leaving. So, he had noticed me all day? And then I thought about him saying how I didn't say bye when he clearly didn't even say hi to me in the morning. Then, my mind drifted to how in every class I had I sat on a far side corner, and mostly next to Mason. Then, I remembered how in every class there was only one empty seat. It's like if someone left and I took their place. I then came to realize how Lexie had the room all to herself before I showed up at her door. It was all too strange. If I didn't get answers now, my mind would keep chewing at my thoughts.

"Lexie," I said as if there were someone else in the room for her to not realize I was talking to her.

"Have you always had this room to yourself?" She stopped writing on her notebook when the last word came out of my mouth. Then, she continued writing.

"No," she said simply.

"How'd you end up having this room to yourself?" I pushed.

"Not tonight new girl," she replied, grabbed her notebook and slipped out through the door. I curled myself in a ball with my head near my desk where I got a perfect view of my grandparents.

"Good-night Grandma and Grandpa. Good-night new girl," I whispered to myself.


	4. Chapter 4: Curiosity Killed the Cat

Chapter 4:

Curiosity Killed the Cat

The morning breeze wrapped itself around me. The window had been left open; although, I don't recall opening it last night. My eyes drifted toward Lexie, who had her blindfold on and was hugging the plain iron bat close to her chest. I slipped my feet out of the soft blanket that had kept them warm all night. My frail toes lightly touched the snow white carpet and danced their way to the window. As I closed the window and pulled the curtains together where they would meet halfway, Lexie's clock sang a high pitched beeping sound. I made my way over to her drawer trying to hit the off button, since Lexie seemed to have no pulse.

I began to shake her awake the way she did to me the night before. That was a horrible idea. She shot up on her knees swinging the bat all over the place as if she were fighting the air. I screamed and fell on my ass putting my arms in front of me as a shield.

"Stay back!" she kept chanting.

"Lexie, it's just me!" I pleaded.

"Take off the blindfold!"

"No! I won't fall for your incompetent trick! Stay back, or else I'll shove this bat up your ass!" she kept shouting.

"Lexie, it's me, Alexa!" I kept pleading. Before I knew it, Kayla burst into the room getting a hold of Lexie from the back.

"It's Kayla!" she shouted in her ear. Lexie stopped swinging the bat. She lifted the blindfold off her eyes and had a blank stare on her face. Her eyes then became wider than a dog's chew toy that expanded its eyes whenever it was squeezed by a dog's canine teeth. She must have noticed how I was curled into a ball near the corner in between her desk and drawer.

"Oh my god Alexa I'm so sorry!" Lexie flew off the bed and fell onto her knees in front of me.

"I'm really sorry! I thought you were a va-"she stopped herself before she can say anything else.

"You thought I was what?" I asked her with my eyes narrowed. She turned to look at Kayla who was now sitting on my desk chair. They stayed quiet for a minute.

"A bad guy, she thought you were a bad guy," Kayla answered, but I couldn't buy it. I know what I heard.

"I'm pretty sure I heard a v sound in the beginning of the word," I told Kayla.

"Your ears must still be ringing from Lexie's screaming," she said sure of herself. I looked away and untied myself from the ball I was in, got up from the corner where I was hiding in and made my way to the drawer. I pulled out the boxed skirt and placed it on my laps.

"It's Friday, we don't wear our uniforms," Kayla told me. That explained why she was dressed in black jeggings, grey cardigan with a plain white shirt underneath, and grey heal leather boots. Her hair was in a sideways fish tale, her eyelids a shade of light grey with eyeliner on her bottom eyelid, and her pink lips were glossy. This girl was a morning person. I put the skirt back inside and pulled out my purple cheetah tights. I then went to the second drawer and pulled out a black shirt with 'No Boyfriend, No Problem' written in white with a sign of the men's restroom in a red circle that had a red line going through it on the side. I was thankful that they had left to the restroom so I could change. I then applied black eyeliner on my top eye lid making raccoon eyes on the end of my outer eye and putting eye liner half way through my bottom eye lid. I made my way to the bathroom and miraculously there was no line. It must have been real early. The only ones there were two girls in their pajamas still half asleep and Lexie who was wearing a white Asking Alexandria shirt cut from the collar, black skinny jeans, and black and white Chuck Taylor high tops.

After I finished brushing my teeth, I went back to the room where Lexie and Kayla were waiting for me.

"Ready to go?" Kayla asked with her chirping tone than the monotone from earlier.

"Yeah," I said putting on my vans and grabbing my black bag. Once we got outside, Malik was in the white Chrysler with Vlad. Lexie sat in the passenger seat and I got stuck with the crazed love birds in the back. I was glad that the ride was short. When we pulled up in the lot, I noticed Mason standing by the hood of his black GT Mustang. He was wearing grey skinny jeans, a black shirt that had amplified in blue and white colors, a black sweater, and black vans. We got out and made our way towards him.

"Well look who's here early," Mason said to Lexie.

"Shut up," she said and shoved him playfully. He smiled showing his perfectly white teeth.

Everyone began to talk animatedly while I stood inches away from them looking at the red orange yellow leaves fall off the thick rigid branches. I saw as they fell lightly to the ground with no pain afterwards. I saw how each one mounted onto another the way they did when Grandma and Grandpa would rake the leaves into a pile when I was five so I can then jumped onto them. It didn't hurt a bit, but the memory did. I couldn't think of anyone else to take their place. I then remembered about me taking every seat in the corner and how Lexie avoided my questions.

"Alexa, Earth to Alexa!" Lexie screamed waving her hand in front of me. I blinked twice and turned to her.

"You seemed really out of it. What were you thinking about?" Lexie asked me. I bit my tongue trying not to say what I had to say in a bad way, but it didn't work.

"How you kept avoiding my questions last night," I told her. She froze in place. Kayla noticed and turned to me.

"What questions?"

"How she ended up having a room to herself," I told her, but I don't think she got what my curiosity was all about.

"I find it unusual how in every class I walked into yesterday, there was always one empty seat, and they were always on the top steps in the corner. Then, I thought to how Lexie had the room to herself," I pushed. Kayla was next to be frozen.

"That's none of your concern," Mason sneered at me. I turned to see his thick eyebrows narrowed at me and he was standing pretty tall, inches from me. This pissed me off. Especially since I'm only 5'3 and he's almost freaking six feet tall.

"I'm just asking a simple question," I told him.

"It's none of your business," he sneered again. This hit my nerve as he got closer to me.

"No need for your tone," I sneered this time and I swore he growled at me.

"Mason that's enough, she doesn't know," Vlad intervened pushing Mason back on his chest. I noticed how Mason's eyes became a cool shade of grey, which made me gasped.

"Your eyes, I could have sworn they were-"

"Let's go Alexa," Lexie said pulling me away. I let her take me away because clearly my mind was in turmoil. After we went into the restroom I composed myself.

"What was all that about?" I asked her, but she looked away.

"Why is it so hard for you to answer my questions?" I told her.

"It is not in my position to tell," she told me.

"Then who's is it?"

"Alexa, just drop it, please."

"Well, it's just your luck that I am small and stubborn," I told her as calm as I could.

"Please Alexa, just drop it," she pleaded.

"Why should I? What are you guys hiding from me?" she remained quiet.

"Fine have it your way," I hissed and walked out the restroom and headed to my first period class. To my luck the bell had already rung and there were a few people in the classroom. I noticed the guy who slapped my ass yesterday was sitting two seats down from me. He turned around and flashed me a bright smile. I gave him a weak smile and looked down at my desk. By then Kayla was making her way to her desk.

"Are you okay?" she asked with concern.

"No," I said in monotone.

"I'm sorry," she said.

"Yeah, I'm sorry too that my new friends are already keeping things from me, but you know what I'll try to understand. I mean, all I am is a girl who showed up to crash your group and replace a person that apparently means a lot to Mason," I seethed.

"You're not a burden if that's what you mean, and I'm sure you're not taking anyone's place," she said calmly.

"Then answer my questions."

"It's not in my place," she defended. I humph, crossed my arms and looked away.

"Please Alexa, don't make this any harder," she pleaded. I remained silent and she got the hint that I wanted to be left alone. I stayed that way for the whole day. I didn't even go to lunch. Instead I asked a girl lurking by my third period class where I could find the counselor. I walked down to high grey granite buildings, passing an immense circle with small steps leading to a smaller circle in the middle with pieces of stick branches and benches circling it. I walked into the building and went up some dark brown stairs until I reached a hall where there was a cushion bench to the side of a door. I walked in to find a pale thick woman in a navy blue skirt with a coat matching it. She wore dangling earrings and two inch heels. Her lips were a rosy pink color and her eyes had light blue eye shadow on top. She smiled at me showing white teeth.

"Is my aunt Maggie in?" I asked her.

"Yes she is. Go ahead, right through those double doors." She pointed at a massive dark wooden door. I knocked lightly and turned the knob. I stuck my head in first to see if she was busy.

"Alexa, come in," she said smiling.

"Is it a good time?" I asked her.

"It's always a good time for my favorite niece," she said.

"If I don't recall, I am your only niece," I lifted my left eyebrow. She laughed.

"Touché, so what brings you here, my sweet intelligent untroubled darling." I smiled at her lack of making me feel good.

"I'm having a terrible day," I confessed.

"What happened? Are the kids not treating you right?" she looked worried.

"It's not that. As a matter of fact, I met this unique group. If I didn't know any better, they looked like they belonged in a magazine."

"Then, what's the problem?" she placed her elbows on the oak table full of papers and laid her chin on her hands that were in fists.

"They seem to be keeping something from me." Her head lifted an inch off her fists and froze the way Lexie and Kayla had. I looked at her quizzically.

"Like what?" she finally said after a minute.

"I asked Lexie how she ended up having the room to herself, but remained quiet and walked away. When I asked her again this morning in front of the group, Mason went all demented on me, that Lexie had to pull me away towards the girls' restroom and told me it wasn't in her place to tell me. She wouldn't say anything else. Kayla told me the same thing."

"What made you ask her about it?"

"I found it odd how in every class there was always one empty seat in the top corner of the steps. Then, I thought back to how Lexie had the room all to herself," I explained to her. She didn't seem to make a sudden move.

"You know what's even more strange?" I asked her and she nodded her head at me to continue.

"This morning, Lexie practically attacked me with this iron bat that she sleeps with. I mean, sure she had her blindfold on, but still I kept telling her it was me. Then, Kayla showed up out of nowhere and was able to calm her down. She apologized to me and went on to say how she thought I was something starting with a V," I raged at my aunt, who was now staring at me with open eyes.

"Something starting with a V?" she asked quizzically.

"She stopped herself before she could say anything else. Kayla said that she was going to say bad guy. That she thought I was a bad guy. Although, I'm positive I heard a v sound in there." My aunt turned away to look at the wide window to the right side of her desk.

"Can you tell me what's going on?"

"What makes you think I know?" she said at the window with a scruff.

"You are reacting the same way they did," I shot at her.

"Watch your tone with me," she turned to look at me. I pushed myself back into the wooden cushion seat across from her.

"Sorry, it just makes me angry that no one can answer a simple question," I lowered my voice.

"Maybe because it's not so simple," she said.

"What do you mean?" I leaned my body onto the desk's edge folding my arms on the top.

"If someone asked you how your grandparents died, wouldn't it be hard for you to answer and try to avoid the question?" I pushed myself back again.

"Only because it's a tragedy that's not easy to explain, and it hurts," I replied to her example.

"Exactly."

"So, the reason they're not telling me it's because it's tragic," I said as a statement.

"I didn't say that."

"You didn't have to." I grabbed my bag and threw it over my right shoulder. I made my way to the double doors.

"Don't push the subject Alexa. I know how you are." I stopped at the foot of the door with my right hand on the knob. I slightly turned my head around to face her.

"Than if you know me so well, you know I won't." I turned the knob and walked out of her office.

"Alexa!" I heard her yell through the doors but kept walking. The rest of the class periods were awkward since Mason sat beside me. This time it didn't bother me to know he was acting like I wasn't there. After sixth period I walked backed to the dorms to try and have some peace of mind. That was no remedy, since I could hear Claudia's hyena laugh a mile away. So I got up from my bed and went for a walk. I roamed the streets not paying attention to my surroundings. I was contemplating the possibilities of why Lexie having her own room was tragic. I was pulled out of my train of thoughts when I heard my nickname be called. I turned and saw the handsome guy that had the nerve to slap my ass yesterday. He walked through some naked trees and disappeared. If I would have known better I would have just kept walking, but I didn't. I followed him only catching glimpse of his white hoodie. Little by little more trees began to form. I even passed a small river. I was finally able to see his full figure in this small opening surrounded by thick burned trees.

"I'm glad you came along," his voice sang an angelic tone that was mesmerizing than the way it sounded when he offered a 'tour'.

"What's up?" I managed to say. He turned and made his way to me with a smirk on his face that looked almost menacing but hot. I realized his emerald green eyes were a dark pitch grey. As he got closer, my brain told me to step back. It wasn't until I had crashed into a thick trunk and he was inches away from my face that I could no longer pull away.

"Let me introduce myself. I'm Stephen," he purred. His nose then sniffed my neck up and down. His palms were pressed against the trunk blocking any passage for me.

"You smell so good," he purred again. If I didn't find his actions eerie, I would have been turned on, but really all he was arousing were my nerves, especially when he licked the left side of my neck.

"Wh-what are you doing?" I pushed myself further into the tree.

"I just want a taste." I couldn't believe the situation I was in. It was clear that he was going to rape me; however, I didn't find the nerve to push him away. I felt stuck, paralyzed. It wasn't until I saw pointy fangs grow out of his top teeth that I had screamed, but he put his massive thin hand over my mouth.

"You'll only feel a sudden pitch. Nothing to be afraid of," he reassured. As he tilted my head to the side and was burrowing his head into my neck, I began to kick and push him. He tried to keep me still, but I wouldn't budge. I stomped my heel onto his foot and kneed him on his glorious groin. He winced a little and took a step back. I made a run for it, but he recovered himself too quickly and pulled me back by my straight hair. Then, he sends me flying onto the dirt near the roots of the tree. I winced in pain and tried to get back up. He pounced onto me, but I was able to step aside. I got up with a limp and began to scream.

"Help! Help!" I began to cry. I couldn't fight him off anymore. For Christ's sakes he was a Vampire. I began to slap myself, thinking it was just a nightmare and it was time to wake up. Stephen appeared in front of me with an evil grin.

"You're mine now." He got a hold of me and pinned me to the tree. Before he dug his fangs into my neck, he was pushed off me, and I ended up falling on my side. I looked up with tears streaming down my cheeks. I gasped when I saw Mason's dark turquoise eyes burning into my green hazel irises. When he was going to make his way towards me, Stephen came from behind him, and tackled him to the ground scraping the dirt with his face. I then noticed Vlad, and Kayla show up in a low crouch with white fangs sticking out as they hissed. I then noticed an unfamiliar face show up and attack Kayla and Vlad. My mind had gone numb, I tried to compose myself and make a run for it while they were all distracted. After my tears dried up against my cheeks I sprinted away from the scene. I began to run faster after I felt a vibration beneath my feet and heard footsteps on my heels. Unfortunately, I wasn't fast enough and a pair of cold hands grabbed onto my right shoulder and pulled me back. However, he lost his grip when someone pushed him forward. I ended up rolling down this low hill and bashed my head onto the tree trunk. I tried to focus on who was fighting before me. My vision began to shake and become a blur. The last thing I saw was Mason's fangs pierce into Stephen's neck. The last thing I heard was, "Curiosity killed the cat."


	5. Chapter 5: Crazy

Chapter 5:

Crazy

My eyes fluttered open little by little. As soon as I had my eyes fully open, an incandescent white light shun over me. The room was white, and I was lying down on a thin mattress being hold by metal bars. My back was throbbing with a sharp pain, as well as my head felt like a boulder attempted to rip it off, but didn't manage. I tried to remember what had happened, and a flashback of the forest came to me. I saw Stephen slamming Mason into a thick rigid tree, hissing while white fangs tried to pierce Mason's skin. I then saw Kayla be attacked by a golden haired girl pinning her to the ground, connecting her fist into Kayla's soft face. I saw Vlad sprint toward Stephen and lift him six feet into the air, then slam-dunk him into the ground. I remembered running through the green forest. Someone had gotten a hold of me, but was pulled back by someone else resulting in me falling down a small hill into a tree. It was all too fast. Mason's eyes were looking at me in awe, while Stephen's were malicious. After that, it all went pitch black.

Now I'm here. God knows where. I began to panic, my heart rate increased, my head spun. I quickly jumped off the bed causing a minor set fall. I balanced myself and ran towards the door. Before my hand was able to get a hold of the silver knob, the door flung open. I screamed and ran towards the window that was to the left of the bed. I began to beat on it screaming for help.

"Alexa, calm down!" said a melodic voice from behind me. Hands were put on my shoulders, which only made me corner myself.

"Stay back!" this was the perfect time for Lexie to be here with her iron bat.

"Look at me. I'm just a doctor. You're safe here," he continued. I looked out of the corner from my eye where my bangs fell to either side. Before me was a pale man, the same hair color as mine, dark ash brown, crystal blue eyes almost like Kayla's. His face was clear, perfect, and young. He was tall, and well built-up. He looked angelic standing before me with worried eyes.

"Are you my Guardian Angel," I said like if I were high on Anastasia. He gave me a dazzling smile, white and perfect.

"Um, no. I'm afraid not, but I am a doctor. If that counts?" I nodded dumbly. He reached for my arms and pulled me back to the hospital bed.

"That was quite the speed you had," he said. I stayed quiet.

"Your back seems to be bruised, but thankfully no ribs were broken. How's your head," he continued while flashing a miniature flashlight onto my eyes.

"Good," I whispered.

"Do you remember anything?"

"You won't believe me," I whispered.

"Try me."

I looked at him for a quick second to see if he was serious. I looked around the room to make sure no one else was around to hear what I had to say. I took a deep breath and began to rant about what I had remembered.

"I was with Stephen in some woods and all of a sudden these fangs grew out of his mouth. His eyes had changed color and he looked crazed. I tried getting away from him and only managed to escape for a couple of seconds. Then, I saw Mason and Kayla and Vlad and this other golden haired girl come out of nowhere. They were all attacking each other each with these white pierced fangs!" The doctor seemed to have no pulse.

"Aren't you going to say something? Anything can help right now," I whispered.

"Can you excuse me for a minute?"

"Can I?" I teased unintentionally, but he was already half way out the door.

A couple of minutes later I saw the last person I wanted to see walk through the door alone. I swiftly got off the bed and stared into his dark turquoise eyes.

"Don't worry. I'm not here to harm you."

"Or blow off on me?" He sighed.

"My brother told me what you told him."

"Your brother?"

"Yes, the doctor is my older brother. He told me that you said you saw us with fangs, am I correct?"

"Don't play stupid with me Mason. I know what I saw and at this point I do not even doubt it one bit. You may think I'm just a dull human being, but I pay attention to my surroundings. May I warn you I'm a good observer. There's something weird going on here and I swear to you I'll get to the bottom of it!"

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," his voice became deep.

"Because you know it's true."

"No, it's because you won't find anything because none of it happened."

"I know what I saw! How else would you explain the reason I fell?"

"It's simple. Stephen and I were arguing because he was trying to rape you. Kayla and Vlad had come along with me. The girl with the golden hair just happened to be walking by and tried to stop Stephen and me from fighting. Kayla got pissed off that she did that and began to start a fight with the girl. Vlad came to help me with Stephen. You couldn't stand being there and took off running. Stephen tried to run after you, but I intervened. You took the wrong step and fell down the hill. End of story. You must have hit your head pretty bad on the way down, or my brother over did it with the Anastasia."

My head began to throb from the intake of his words. Could it have been just my imagination? I shook my head in disbelief and sat down on the thin mattress. Mason stood parallel from me, both of us looking straight ahead through the window. The yellow orange leaves were falling gently down to the cut green grass, and all I could think about were my grandparents again.

"I'm sorry for blowing off on you yesterday. I had no reason to." I recalled that day, the leaves were falling in the same pattern. I remembered everything that was said.

"What did Vlad mean by, I don't know?" Mason stood paralyzed.

"You're going to have to forgive me, but it's personal and none of your business," with that being said Mason walked out of the room. I took a deep breath and exhaled as soon as the doctor walked in.

"You may go back to your dorm now," he spoke softly.

"Why did you send Mason in to talk to me?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"Why couldn't _you_ just tell me it was the Anastasia that had made me say all those things?" Mason's brother cleared his throat.

"I just thought Mason could help refresh your memory on how the event actually occurred."

"Hhmm," was all I said and made my way past the doctor, through the door. From the hospital I tried to find my way to my Aunt Maggie's office. From far away I saw the circle with the benches circling and I knew I had found my way. I walked down the hall into a wooden door to find the receptionist typing on her computer in an abnormal speed. As soon as she saw me she told me, "She's waiting for you in there."

I nodded my head to give her thanks and walked through the double doors. Aunt Maggie was faced towards the window with her right leg overlapping her left. She had her hands lay gently on top of her leg near her waist, her fingers intertwined with one another.

"How are you feeling?" She asked with no sudden move.

"How do you think I'm feeling?"

"What do you have running around in your head?"

"I'd appreciate it if we can talk family to family, not counselor to student." She turned her brown leather chair around to face me.

"Very well then." I looked into her eyes; leaned myself forward, placed my elbows on the edge of her desk, and took a deep breath.

"Will you please tell me what is going on?"

"About what?" she said as she positioned herself identical to me like a mirror.

"About the people in this school."

"I have no clue of what you are talking about."

"Cut the crap Aunt Maggie. You and I know very well there is something strange about these people."

Aunt Maggie made her voice monotone as she said, "I've told you to watch your tone with me young lady. There is nothing strange about these people. It's all in your head. Maybe you haven't learned to accept your grandparent's death."

"How exactly have you been coping with your parents death?" I growled.

"Alexa, that's enough!" Aunt Maggie slammed her fists onto the desk.

"You're starting to sound crazy! If you don't clean up all that mess in your head then I will personally take you myself to a psych hospital!" I had hit a nerve.

"You're right Aunt Maggie. I've been so screwed up after my grandparent's death that I don't know what's right anymore. My apologies, I'll leave you alone now and get lost in the pits of my own sorrow in silence." I got up and walked out the double door with my Aunt Maggie watching after me with a far distant look in her pure hazel eyes.

When I got back to my room I threw myself onto the twin bed and stared into my grandparent's smiling eyes. A tear escaped my eye, but I didn't bother wiping it away. At that moment Lexie darted toward my limp body.

"Alexa, are you okay?!" she kneeled in front of me, her eyes red. She was trying to catch her breath.

"I don't know anymore," I replied in a low voice.

"What do you mean?" This time she sat on her ass.

"I don't know what I think or feel anymore."

"Well, how could you not?"

"I say one thing, and others say another. I honestly don't know whether it's all part of my imagination, or it's really there and others don't want me to realize it." Lexie looked away from me.

"Maybe, it's just not of importance and you need to move on."

"Aunt Maggie says I haven't learned to cope with my grandparent's death. In my defense, for a sixteen year old girl like me that has her hormones spitting fire, I've coped well."

"What was her reason for arguing that you weren't coping well?"

"She says I'm talking like a lunatic by saying that the people in this school are acting strange."

"What makes you think they're strange?"

"Have you ever noticed how most of the teachers seem too young?"

"Well, there can be young teachers."

"But to be very well experienced?"

"I guess."

"Have you noticed how a lot of them are pale and gorgeous? It's like they belong in magazines."

"We are located in a cold place. Hardly any sun is around."

"It doesn't have to do with whether there's sun or not. It's the less pigment that makes them that way."

"How do you do it?" Lexie said. Her head was tilted sideways.

"How do I do what?"

"Notice any little detail."

"I don't think it's little detail. It's out there for the whole school to see."

"Yet, you pay close attention to it," she continued.

"I'm just an observer." Lexie got up from her place on the carpet and smoothened out her navy blue jeans.

"Are you coming?"

"Where to?"

"The rec. room. The whole gang is there."

"No thanks. I feel like being alone today."

"Okay, but promise you won't go out alone again?"

"Why?"

"Did you not learn from your first incident?" She crossed her arms in front of her chest while she tilted to her left adding pressure to her left leg.

"Oh, right. Yeah, I promise." She patted my head and made her way towards the door.

Before she left she said, "Don't do anything crazy."

I turned to the picture frame of my grandparents.

"I'm not crazy."


	6. Chapter 6: Murder

Chapter 6

Murder

I was lying down on my bed just staring at the picture for about five minutes. I felt so alone that my tears didn't even want to cry anymore. I can't stand to be alone, especially with nothing else to do. I remembered Friday night pizza with my grandparents. We'd sit in front of the plasma T.V. watching reruns of the three stooges. I knew when grandpa actually thought something was funny was whenever he would laugh and he couldn't hold in his snorts and grandma would think that was funny so she would join him in unison. We would stay up until two of the morning, sometimes it would just be me and my grandpa breaking curfew.

I remembered when grandma would go have tea with Mrs. Hendricks and she would want to bring me along, but I would cause a fuss and grandpa would come and rescue me. He would tell grandma that he had to help me study for a test so that the money they were saving up for me will actually be of use for my university tuition, but instead grandpa and I were making root beer floats and having stupid contests. Like for example, one day grandpa had this flashback of when he was a freshman in high school with his buddies; they would all join together in this tree house grandpa had built with his father in this massive tree they had in the backyard, and they would do ice-cream shots where each person had four shots of ice-cream and whoever took more shots in thirty seconds won. Grandpa had challenged me knowing I wouldn't resist. Unfortunately, the old man still had game, he had won by two, but then again I was only twelve and my teeth at that time were really sensitive.

I remembered the last time I hung out with my grandma, and it was the first time we spent time together alone. I was in her studio three luminous stormy nights before their death. She had Beethoven's moonlight sonata playing in the background. Her fragile right hand made light strokes on this rare, almost cardboard, white paper. Her left hand, where her golden wedding ring that had one small radiant diamond sealed tight in a petite crater still wrapped around her bony light skinned finger, held a light brown wooden pallet with warm colors spread in miniature circles. I sat on a wooden stool adjacent from her. She didn't speak a word for the first hour, then for the next half an hour she hummed. It wasn't until I got off the stool because my right ass cheek had fallen asleep and I felt my left ass cheek heading the same direction that she had spoken to me. I was standing behind her grasping the image before us. I was surprised to see my mother's flawless face lying against the paper, and no picture of her was located in the room.

"I remember your mother so well. I had her memorized ever since she fled with your father," grandma spoke. She stopped moving her right hand.

"What happened?" I whispered. Grandma sighed, her light brown eyes focused on my mother's face.

"I didn't approve of your father."

"Well, why not?" I asked hesitantly.

"A mother knows best," was all she said for a while. I strolled around the room to keep myself distracted from pushing her to speak more. Most of her murals were of forests in the night with blazing eyes hiding in the dark. Others were of sunset beaches falling into night time. There were some murals covered with stained sheets painters use to cover the floor. When I proceeded to lift it up just a bit, grandma had put her wrinkled hand that she used to paint to stop me.

"There's a reason they're covered child," she spoke in monotone.

"Why is that grandma?"

"You wouldn't understand." She made her way to clean the brushes in this silver sink she had near a far corner next to a grand window that embraced the image of our backyard.

"What was wrong with the man my mother fled with?"

"You mean your father?"

"Yes."

"He became our worst nightmare." I stood still hoping she would continue.

"It shouldn't matter to you child. He's gone. All he ever did was take my baby girl away, my baby boy." I saw her eyes glisten with tears.

"Baby boy?" Grandma had gently walked me out of the studio and closed the door behind me. That was the last I had heard from her.

I shook my head to make the memories fade away as if they were only smoke. These memories burned me alive. I wanted to leave the dorm, but I had promised Lexie I wouldn't wonder off alone, so I called her.

"Alexa?"

"Hey Lexie, umm, I just called to let you know I'm on my way to the rec. room. Being in this room alone is quite depressing. I don't know how you managed it." There was pause for a couple of seconds.

"Alright, do you remember the way?"

"Yeah, don't worry about it. Remember, I'm a good observer."

"Ha-ha, alright than, we'll be waiting at the air hockey tables."

"Alright, thanks. See you soon."

"Alright, lates."

When I walked into the room, Kayla had run towards me and pulled me into a hug. For a petite girl she was pretty strong.

"Kayla, can't breathe," I gasped.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I'm just glad you're okay. You took quite the fall when you ran away."

"Don't worry about it. Your brother said I was lucky enough to have only gotten bruises." Kayla was staring into my eyes.

"What?" I asked her.

"Have you been crying?"

"What?"

"Your eyes are red." I had forgotten that tears had escaped every now and then through the flashbacks.

"Oh, don't worry about it. I'm okay."

"Is it because of your grandparent's death?" Lexie asked.

"Your grandparents passed away?" Kayla asked.

"Yeah, recently."

"I'm sorry, I didn't know."

"It's okay." Kayla pulled me to the air hockey table and handed me the handle thing.

"Let's play a game. Maybe, that will get your head out of the clouds." I nodded. After five minutes of the game, Kayla won by one point. Vlad later challenged her and Lexie and Malik went to go get drinks. That left me and Mason sitting on the red couch alone. I tried ignoring his presence, to my luck my mind wouldn't drift away like it normally did, and if it did, it would only drift to my grandparents. I hadn't noticed how deep the memory had cut until Mason spoke to me.

"Is it your grandparents?"

"Huh?"

"You're crying." He wasn't looking at me though.

"Yeah."

"You want to go for a walk?" My eyes blinked a couple of times to realize he was serious.

"I guess a walk would be nice." He got up without saying another word. I guessed he figured I would follow, and I did.

The sun had set behind the mountains, and the lamppost lights blazed onto the concrete streets. Mason was walking with his hands in his dark straight jeans. His black hood was over his head, and his walk seemed to try to move slowly. After four minutes I was able to catch up to him and we walked for a while until we made it to the big circle with the little circle. Mason made his way down the small steps and sat down on the rigid bench. I stopped adjacent from him and stared at him. I guess I stared so that he could reassure me that he wanted me to sit down next to him.

"You're not going to sit down? " Bingo.

"I don't bite, unless you want me to?" He looked straight ahead and then up to the purple sky. I took a hesitant step and sat down next to him making sure that I didn't brush against him.

"How did your grandparents pass away?" He was very candid.

"Like you said, no offense but it's personal and none of your business," I replied abruptly. He chuckled.

"I think it would be of great help if you talked about it. Get it out of your system." I sighed. I suddenly had this urge of wanting to spill my guts out to him, but I became guarded as well.

"Why do you want to know?"

"I just want to help."

"Why?"

"Can't you just appreciate what I'm trying to do?"

"What are you trying to do?" he leaned forward, placed his elbows on his knees, and rested his heads into his palms.

"I'm trying to be a friend. I'm trying to make up for those moments in which I seemed like a douche." I remained still for a minute.

"It was a rare death," I finally said. His head flinched my way. I took a deep breath.

"They were found in the living room. Their bodies were still and cold, almost pale. They're not sure of the cause of death." I began to have flashbacks of that endless night. Grandpa and I were in the billiard room. We heard commotion coming from my grandma's studio and grandpa went running to see what was going on. He then ran back into the room and told me to drop the stick and to run to our secret basement. We went running past the living room, but my grandpa stopped me and hid me in this old wooden closet like the one in my room. He told me to not make a sound, to stay there until the coast was clear. He took off his golden locket and placed it shut in my palms. The last thing he told me was that he loved me.

After that, a dark figure showed up in front of my grandpa. They were screaming but I couldn't understand the words they were saying. I tried to stay calm when the figure lifted him and threw him next to my grandma's body that appeared near the coffee table. I tried closing my eyes so I wouldn't burst out of that closet. The figure stood over them as their souls screeched for mercy. I covered my mouth to keep from making any noise, and I succeeded to close my eyes. After that, the room became distant, no one seemed to be around. I stepped out of the closet to find my grandparent's bodies lying next to each other. Their hands intertwined with each other's, as if to say they were going to die together. Then, I remembered something very odd.

"Their bodies were hollow," I said.

"What do you mean?" Mason got closer to me, his right arm resting on the head bench behind me.

"It looked like they could have had a heart attack, but their bodies weren't wounded, punctured," I panted.

"They didn't look dead but they were! They even had some blood loss, but how!?" I stood up with a sudden speed and began to pace back and forth.

"Alexa, calm down," Mason placed his hands on my shoulder. I received that same shock from the first time we met, and I pulled back.

"Sorry," he said.

"My grandparent's death wasn't accidental," I continued.

"But you just said it didn't look like they were killed."

"Think about it. Their bodies hardly had any blood on them, but they weren't wounded! That dark figure did something to them!"

"What's your assumption?" Mason began to get uncomfortable.

"The figure was quite strong and very fast. I remembered its voice was melodic, yet deep. It was a male's voice. He kept asking my grandpa for something, or someone. Yes, someone, because he kept asking, where is she?" I began to pace again.

"But how would he have killed them?" Mason asked.

"I don't know, but he was hovered over their chest and up."

"What was he doing?" Mason became impatient.

"I don't know!" I said agitated.

"After that, I couldn't see well. I didn't have such a good angle."

"Then, maybe it's not what it looks like in your head."

"I'm not crazy, if that's what you're trying to insinuate." I burrowed my eyes at him.

"Don't put words in my mouth. I'm just trying to understand where you're coming from." I looked away from him. I crossed my arms in front of my chest and looked up at the first star I could find.

"I don't think you can. Not even my Aunt Maggie can understand. Just forget about it. I'll figure this out on my own."

"How?"

"I'm a good observer and I have a good memory. I'll use it to my advantage." I felt Mason standing right behind me. His lips near my ear.

"If I could be of any help, don't be hesitant to ask." I turned around to face him. He was inches away from me just that he had to bend his neck down to have eye contact with mine.

"Thanks," I whispered. Then, I walked past him towards my dorm. He was right on my heel.

We walked through the hallway and he stayed close to me, even when I was opening the door with my keys. I walked into the room and he followed. I didn't know what to think of it. He looked around and sat down on Lexie's bed. I took a seat on the corner of my bed.

"Are those your grandparents?" he pointed at the picture frame of me and them sitting on the swinging bench. The only one I had.

"Yeah," I said in a low voice.

"You look very happy."

"I was." I pulled my legs up on my bed and sat criss crossed apple sauce.

"Was?" I got a hold of the frame.

"I just have this hole in my heart that I can't seem to fulfill."

"Don't they have a place in your heart?"

"Of course they do. I just feel like something is missing." I put the frame back on my desk. I turned to face Mason and he had that look of awe in his eyes. He then got up and headed towards the door.

Before he closed the door behind him he asked, "So, what's your final hypothesis?"

"Murder," I replied.


	7. Chapter 7: Aunt Maggie

Chapter 7:

Aunt Maggie

Sunday morning I woke up alone with my window open once again. I don't even think Lexie slept here last night. Last time I recall, we can't linger around in the opposite sex's room after seven. This worried me a bit because where else could Lexie have gone other than Malik's dorm. I doubt she had slept over at Kayla's because they would have told me. I reached for my phone, only to find a text message from her.

_ Heyy, if u wake up & don't find me in my bed it's bcuz I slept over at Malik's dorm (: Goodnight._

I replied, _Sorry, I didn't read the txt until now. I almost had a heart attack if I hadn't checked my phone_. _Alright than, now I'm letting you know that I'm heading to my Aunt Maggie's office right now, so don't worry if you don't find me in our room. (:_

She replied a minute later saying, _Haha alright than (:_

I got out of my cozy bed and put on some light sky blue jeans with a cute striped pink and white shirt. I decided to head over to my Aunt Maggie's office since it was already one of the afternoon. I hoped this time we could have a nice settled conversation. I made my way past the villages, and past the circle where I had my first moment alone with Mason. I stopped to admire the scene. I remembered the look in his eyes when he would look up at the stars, the way he seemed so into our conversation, the way he tried to understand, and the way he walked up behind me to say he would be there for me. His touch was exhilarating. _SNAP out of it Alexa! Stay focused! _I shook my head and continued my way.

This time, I was greeted by a pale man with golden hair, icy blue eyes, and that perfect white smile.

"Umm, may I speak to my Aunt Maggie?"

"Certainly," he said in an angelic tone. He placed his right hand on my back and pushed me into her office. When I walked in, Aunt Maggie's leather chair was turned backwards to me. The young man closed the door behind me, leaving me alone with her.

"Aunt Maggie?"

"Sit," her voice rang softly. I sat down.

"Umm, Aunt Maggie, what's wrong with your voice?" She chuckled.

"You don't miss a thing."

"You should know that by now."

"Indeed I should. Tell me, what brings you here today?" I sat sideways on the chair placing my left leg over my right and folding my hands into each other.

"May you please turn around? Remember, I wish to speak to you as family, not counselor to student."

"You have such great grammar," she said as she turned around to face me. I tried examining her. There was something off about her.

"Did you do something different to yourself?" I leaned forward to place my right elbow on my left knee that crossed over my right leg and placed my chin in my palm while my fingers curved onto my jaw.

"I'm sure you didn't come here to talk about me." She folded her hands and placed them on her desk while the rest of her arms lay down as well.

"No, I didn't. I actually came here to talk about my grandparents." She didn't make a move.

"What do you wish to speak about?"

"Why are you talking like that?" I let my arm drop.

"Let's stop with the questioning and tell me what's wrong." I looked at her smile.

"Do you know the cause of death of my grandparents?" her smile dropped.

"No, I don't. Not even the forensic people know it. Why do you ask?"

"I had a flashback of when they died." Aunt Maggie's eyes blinked repeatedly.

"You were there?" My head flinched backwards.

"Don't you remember? I called you before the police arrived." Aunt Maggie pulled herself into the chair.

"Right, I remember. What did you see in your flashback?"

"I saw a dark figure asking grandpa where is she." Aunt Maggie began to spin in her chair.

"Where was who?"

"He didn't say a name."

"He?"

"Yeah, it was a male's voice. The strangest thing about it was that he was hovered over them while they screamed. He covered them from chest and up." Aunt Maggie faced the grand window.

"So?"

"It seemed like they had a heart attack, but remember what the forensic said," I told her as a statement to see if she could figure it out.

"What did they say?"

"Aunt Maggie, don't you remember?!"

"No, I don't I apologize!" She raised her high pitched voice. I let myself fall back into the seat in disbelief. When she realized how she had raised her voice she looked away.

"Forgive me for my tone. When it comes to your grandparents my mind transforms into white." We were silent for a couple of minutes. All you could hear was the rustling of the leaves near the window.

"What did they say?" I got up from my chair and leaned against the window seal.

"They said they had blood loss."

"So?"

I turned around to face her with my hands in midair as I told her, "There was no wound! Nothing punctured their skin! Their bodies were hollow, icy, and pale." I remembered crying over them, my head lying on granddad's chest, and then looking at him, my hands cupping his face. I then remembered turning to my grandma, and getting a glimpse of a mark.

"Their necks," I whispered. I looked at Aunt Maggie with her small round eyes growing wide. She only stared at me.

"They had this purple mark on their necks. It looked like a massive hickey." She stood up quick and made her way to the window. She stood parallel from me as her head turned to her left to face me.

"What are your assumptions?" I remembered Mason asking me the same question.

"That man killed them."

"How?" Aunt Maggie faced the window once again.

"I don't know!" I became agitated.

"That doesn't help you solve anything," Aunt Maggie spoke with no emotion. I had had it with her attitude. This wasn't the Aunt Maggie I knew.

"There's something strange happening here," I said strictly as my pointer finger pointed downwards.

"You're going to begin with that hallucination once again?" I grunted as I spun myself in a 180 degree motion and placed my hands on my temples.

"Are you listening to yourself?!"

"Hush child!"

"Child?!" she gave me her back.

"Since when do you say child?!"

"It's best you head on out of here. You're not making any sense." She said calmly. She hadn't even flipped out on me for raising my voice at her like she normally does.

"Who are you?" She froze.

"I'm your Aunt Maggie." Her back was still facing me.

"Nu-uh, Aunt Maggie would have already flipped out on me a good while ago for raising my voice at her.

"You've gone mad," she said in a low pitched voice.

"Look at me." She had no impulse.

"Look at me!" She didn't move.

"I said look at me!" Aunt Maggie turned around as soon as the grand window shattered, the double doors flew open, and the wind swooshed into the room with leaves making a trail. I had fallen to the ground, and when I looked up to face her, her eyes had become a radiant red. I began to pant as I saw her hair flow back like waves because of the wind. She was standing in an anatomical position. My sight grew blurry, my hearing became faint.

All of a sudden different faces I didn't recognize rushed into the room blocking the view between me and Aunt Maggie. I then could hear Mason's voice. I tried to focus on his face to reassure myself that it was him, but my eyes became droopy, almost like if I were fighting to stay awake. All I could see was that look of awe in his eyes again. Then, it became night once again.

I woke up on my cheetah print bed. I rubbed my eyes to make the image clearer. I was alone in my room . I looked at the clock to see it strike five. I then looked down at myself and I noticed I was in my pajamas again. I gasped and began to pull on my clothes looking around like a maniac. My breathing became uncontrollable as I tried to remember how I got here. I jumped when I heard the door open.

"You're finally awake," Lexie said. She was then followed in by the rest of the group.

"What Happened? How did I get here, and when did I change back into my PJ's?"

"What are you talking about?" Kayla asked.

"You've been asleep this whole time," Mason said this time. I looked down at the white fluffed carpet, trying to embrace their words. Flashbacks of Aunt Maggie ran through my mind. The way she smiled, the way she was distant, and the way she looked like a crazed woman in the shattered office. I tried to keep my balance as I stumbled backwards onto the edge of my bed like if I had had too many drinks.

"Are you feeling okay? You were asleep for quite a while," Lexie said.

"Make that a long while," Kayla said. I sat on the corner of my bed with my hands on my head.

"No I wasn't," I finally said.

"Yes you were," Mason said in a strict voice.

"No! I was at my Aunt Maggie's office talking to her. Then, the window shattered, and the doors flew open and the wind was shooting into the room and Aunt Maggie's eyes were red and a lot of people I didn't recognize came rushing in and then you showed up but I couldn't hear or see much!"

"If you couldn't see or hear, than what makes you think I was there, and if it wasn't all just a dream?" Mason crossed his hands over his chest.

"No, I'm not letting this happen again. I know what I saw. I didn't fall and hit my head. This was all too real for it to be a dream," I said exasperated.

"Alexa, you were asleep this whole time," Vlad spoke this time.

"How would you know?" I retorted.

"We came here looking for you, but you were in deep sleep," Malik answered for him.

I shook my head repeatedly, and I began to pace the floor.

"Alexa, are you okay?" Kayla asked again.

"How do you expect me to be if you guys are telling me that I was asleep this whole time when-" I stopped myself because I had remembered I had texted Lexie before I had left to Aunt Maggie's office.

"Alexa?" Kayla asked.

"Lexie let me see your phone." She looked at me with confusion written all over her face.

"Umm, okay. Why?" she said as she handed me her phone. I went through her messages to find the text I had sent her when she texted me saying that she was sleeping over at Malik's.  
After thirty seconds I had found it.

"See," I said as I showed them the text.

"I wasn't asleep. I wasn't even here!" They all looked at each other with the look that said we-got-caught. Then, they all stared at Mason who still had his arms crossed, but his head was tilted downwards.

"Try telling me some bullshit lie this time Mason," I told him harshly. Mason's head flinched upwards to stare into my eyes. They all became still.

"I didn't want it to result into this, but I have no other choice," he said to himself.

"Mason?" Kayla asked.

"Get Stephen," he spoke with no emotion. Kayla ran out the room. My heart began to pump against my rib cage. _What the hell is going on?_ I kept repeating in my head. Moments later Kayla walked in with a serious Stephen behind her. He then made his way in my direction, but then Mason stepped in between us. I saw Stephen's lips move, but they didn't make a sound. Mason then stepped out of his way, and Stephen buried his light crystal eyes into mine. Everybody was watching attentively, expecting something miraculous to happen, but nothing did, and they noticed.

"Why isn't it working?" Mason asked him. Stephen's eyes became burrowed as he tried concentrating even harder. I didn't know what they were expecting to happen, but one thing for sure was that they became unsettled.

"Stephen?" Kayla sounded nervous.

"What are you trying to do?" I asked him. He looked taken back, and turned to look at Mason. Mason then dismissed him and he made his way out the door.

"What was that all about?" I asked Mason. He then had the same focused look in his eyes.

"I knew I wasn't crazy." I made him lose his focus. They all remained inaudible once again.

"I'm starting to believe the incident with Stephen wasn't part of my imagination."

"Yes it was." Mason spoke fast.

"Then explain to me the incident with my Aunt Maggie!" He turned around.

"Leave us alone," he told the rest of the group and they all proceeded out the door.

"I'm waiting."

"I don't know what you saw in your aunt's office, but you said you couldn't even see or hear. So, how do you know what you saw was real?"

"I wasn't completely blind or deaf. I was just a little drowsy," I defended.

"Are you taking any medication?" He sounded hopeful.

"No." I placed my hands on my hips. He had his left hand across his body and his right arm was pointing upwards with his hand half rolled up into a fist lying against his mouth.

"Don't you think after analyzing your grandparent's death, your mind isn't in the right place right now?"

"For the millionth time Mason, I'm not crazy. I know what I saw," I complained and let my arms fall to my side.

"What did you see?"

"For starters, I know that that figure standing before me was not my Aunt Maggie." My eyes fell to the floor.

"Did it not look like her?"

"Of course it did. If it didn't, I would've noticed it right off the bat. I'm not stupid you know."

"Then what makes you think it wasn't her?"

"Her personality was so off. She seemed so distant, almost lifeless. She didn't even tell me to watch my tone with her. That was a dead giveaway." Mason focused his stare on me. He seemed to be examining me very well.

"What?"

"You literally seem to pay attention to any detail whether big or small."

"I warned you, didn't I?" Mason made his way toward the door.

"Hey!" I sprinted towards him and stood in front of him before he had the chance to turn the knob.

"Whoa, how did you get here so fast?"

"Don't think you can just leave without telling me what is really going on." I glared at him.

"You seem to have proven to be a smart girl, you can figure it out on your own," he said with a wink, and walked through the door. I let out a sigh followed by a grunt.

I threw myself on the bed and then reached for my grandparent's picture.

"There's something strange lurking through this campus," I told them.

"I just need to find out what happened to Aunt Maggie."


	8. Chapter 8: Truth

Chapter 8:

Truth

I couldn't stand being in the room with so many questions chewing at my head. I needed answers and I needed them now. Aunt Maggie wasn't in a great state to have another conversation. Lexie doesn't talk at all. Kayla avoids me. I clearly don't speak much to Malik and Vlad. Most of all, Mason was the last person on my list. That only left me one person who I dreaded going to, but I had no other choice. I grabbed my light brown uggs and slipped them on quick before Lexie came into the room to stop me.

I ran down the stairs because I was having happy feet at the moment. I then, later had a problem. I had no idea where to find him. I heard Claudia's booming laughter a couple of feet away, and I ran towards her.

"Claudia?!" The short almost chunky girl faced me. Her light brown eyes widened when she saw me.

"Hey, you're the new girl," she said with a beaming smile.

"Alexa," I said as I shook her hand.

"Listen, can you tell me where I can find Stephen?" she looked taken back.

"What makes you think I know where he is? I mean, it's not like I have this super, major, gigantic crush on him, which is why I stalk him and found out he got into some trouble and has community service at the library on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at this time of the day," she spoke animatedly while moving her hands in a circular motion in midair.

"Umm, thanks," I told her and ran to the library.

Once I got there, the place was warm, the carpets where a shade of purple, the room was the shape of a hexagon, and hardly any people where around. I made my way to a large desk in the middle of the room. A petite light skinned girl was checking in some books in the bin.

"Excuse me, umm, is Stephen here by any chance?" I whispered. She nodded and pointed to a far end book shelf in front of another book shelf leaning against the wall making a miniature hallway leading to a dead end.

"Thank you."

I found Stephen standing tall placing a black book with purple letters on the front cover back in its place. He looked stunning in his slick black jeans with a bright blue shirt hugging his muscles.

"Take a picture, it will last longer," his voice was soft, velvety. He had a flirtatious smirk spread onto his smooth face.

"Don't flatter yourself," I defended. He gave a light laugh.

"What brings you here?" he said placing one last book on the shelf.

"I can ask you the same thing." I stared at him hoping he understood what I was trying to say.

"I got into some trouble."

"With who?" He put some of his weight on the book cart.

"Your little friend Mason." I think I had an idea of what he was talking about.

"Was it because of our incident in the woods?" He got stiff.

"You remember?" I began to pull on the elastic string that kept the longer width books from falling.

"I was kind of hoping you can help me with that." My eyes slowly made their way to find his.

"With what?" he seemed confused.

"Is there somewhere private we can go?" I hadn't realized I had purred until he gave me a bright smile.

"Sure, just let me clock out." He took the book cart back to the front desk and made his way towards me near the exit. He walked down the street and in the corner was a black dodge parked on the curve. He pulled out his car keys and opened the passenger door for me.

"How do I know I won't end up in the hospital again?" He chuckled.

"Do you want answers, or not?"

"Only if you promise I'll come back alive." I crossed my arms in front of my chest.

"I promise." I gave him an eerie look and hesitantly stepped into the passenger seat.

He began to drive through empty streets and I noticed the upward arrows at the front gate.

"Where are we going?"

"For a drive." He smiled again and I had lost a bit of my breath.

He drove for almost fifteen minutes and I hadn't asked him anything. I tried to get a peek of him from my bangs that covered the right side of my face. He looked calm, perfect time to ask. _Don't screw up Alexa!_

"So, you got busted for trying to hurt me?" _Way to not screw up Alexa!_ He didn't make a sudden move.

"Yes, I did."

"Why didn't they call the cops on you?" He had no pulse.

"Because it was a situation the cops wouldn't be able to handle." I took a deep breath.

"They can't handle cannibals?" I pushed. I noticed his jaw clench. He then pulled up on the side of the road. No one was soon to show up.

"What exactly do you want to know?" he turned to face me. I unbuckled my belt and turned my body to the side to face him.

"I want to know if Mason's story of what happened that day is true." He looked ahead at the window shield.

"What was his story?" I cleared my throat.

"He said you tried to rape me and that's why you guys began to fight. Then, some golden haired girl happen to be walking by in the woods and tried to stop you guys from fighting, which only pissed off Kayla and that's why her and the golden haired girl began to fight." He sighed as his jaw clenched even more.

"What's your story?"

"You tried sucking the living hell out of me and suddenly, out of nowhere, Mason, Kayla, Vlad, and the golden haired girl showed up and these fangs were sticking out of their mouth." Stephen gripped the steering wheel.

"Your reaction is enough to prove my story is true." My eyes squinted a bit. He gave a light chuckle. It was silent for a minute.

"You know, I have Mason to blame for that." He paused for a bit.

"If he hadn't interrupted, none of this would be happening." I looked at the window shield.

"What wouldn't be happening?"

"You knowing." I sighed.

"So, it's true?" Stephen let go of the steering wheel.

"There's no point in lying to you. Either way, you still wouldn't have believed me if I told Mason's story was true, right?" I shook my head to agree with him. We stayed quiet for another five minutes.

"Besides, Mason fucked up," he continued.

"How?" I turned to face him.

"He couldn't cover up the incident with your aunt. There's a reason he asked for my help, but obviously it didn't do any good. I figured he just left you alone to ponder." He turned to look at me.

"What were you trying to do?"

"Some of us have special abilities. I, for example, have the ability to hypnotize." He beamed his white smile.

"So, what were you planning to do by hypnotizing me?"

"Mason asked me to try and make you believe that you were actually asleep the whole day and what you saw was just a dream."

"Humph."

"I told him to just let me bite you so then you wouldn't remember anything at all. He owed me for interrupting my snack time."

"Why didn't he let you?"

"I don't know. He did get really pissed off when I offered it though." I looked down at my hands.

"How exactly would I have not remembered anything?" I began to fiddle with my hands.

"After we're done feeding from a human, we put a bit of some of our venom so that the venom can cause some memory loss." I looked up to make eye contact with Stephen.

"I must have smelled pretty appetizing," I chuckled. He joined me.

"To be honest, the reason you are tempting is because your scent is not like other humans. You can distinguish the scent of a human from an animal. For some reason, you have this sweet mixture of human and something else. It's not animal, that's for sure. It's almost like my scent." He got closer to me.

"Vampires also have a scent?"

"Of course we do. It's another way to distinguish us from humans. We can also feed amongst one another, but a human's is more delicious, satisfying."

"How do I smell?" I got closer to him. He sniffed the air between us.

"Sweet, yet sour. Better than sour patches," he purred, which was quite hot. I gulped a bit. I then pulled back.

"Teaser," he said. It kind of made me smile.

"You know what else is interesting about you," he said as a statement.

"What?"

"You were able to cause me a minor pain. Humans can't hurt us without a special weapon made out of iron." That explained why Lexie slept with the iron bat. That's why she flipped out on me. She thought I was a vampire.

"Huh."

"You're really strong for a human, and fast, pretty intelligent too."

"What can I say, I'm one of a kind," I said teasingly. He gave a light laugh.

"You're something special. It only makes me want to have you even more," he said sincerely, his voice endearing.

"Thank you, I guess." I smiled at him. I looked out the window to notice night was setting already. I reached into my boot where I had put my phone in to check the time. As soon as I unlocked it, I noticed I had been blown up with a lot of unread messages from Kayla and Lexie. I even had missed calls from Vlad. I checked the time and it was already seven PM.

"Shit!" Stephen looked at me worried.

"What's wrong?"

"It's late and my friends are flipping out on me." I pressed the call button on Vlad's missed call, and boy did they not sound happy.

"Alexa, where the fuck are you?!" screamed Vlad on the other line.

"Alexa, why did you just disappear?" Kayla yelled.

"Alexa, you have us worried sick!" Lexie yelled this time.

"Alexa, come back to the room now!" This time it was an infuriated Mason.

"Hey, Alexa, can you just tell us where you are?" Malik asked calmly. That was a huge shocker. Stephen began to laugh.

"I'm with Stephen," I replied and began to bite my bottom lip.

"What?" Both Mason and Vlad yelled in unison.

"Are you crazy?" Vlad yelled.

"Are you alone with him?" Mason sounded a little calmer.

"Umm, yes," I whispered into the phone.

"What?" They both yelled again.

"Where exactly are you?" Mason demanded.

"Umm, we went for a drive outside of the campus, and we stopped on the side of the road," I replied while still biting my bottom lip.

"What?" They yelled again.

"Have you gone mad?" Mason yelled.

"I'm coming to get you," he said.

"No!" I almost jumped out of my seat.

"What do you mean no?" Vlad demanded.

"I'll be back in like ten or fifteen minutes," I said unsettled. I could hear them grunting.

"Tell him to hurry up!" Mason ordered and clicked on me. I turned to look at Stephen with my teeth pulling on my bottom lip.

"Don't worry, I'll go over the speed limit," he said letting out one last laugh.

"You're enjoying this aren't you," I accused.

"Every last bit of it."

We got to my dorm in less than ten minutes. He wasn't kidding when he said he was going to drive over the speed limit. I was literally holding on for my life. I got out of the car and bent down to get a good look of his face.

"Thank you. I appreciate you answering my questions," I said sincerely. He gave me a heartwarming smile.

"Don't mention it." He took my phone out of my hands and began to type something.

"That's my number, in case you need anything else. Don't hesitate to call," he said and winked at me before he sped off.

I made my way into the building and decided to take the elevator to save some time to prepare myself for when the ambush would happen. I walked up to my door, 7A. I took a deep breath before turning the knob to the right. As soon as my foot stepped on the snow white carpet, I began to fight for my life.

"Have you gone insane?" Kayla yelled as she threw her hands in the air.

"You had us worried sick! Even more when you said you were with Stephen!" Lexie yelled.

"You could have told us where you were going to be!" Mason blew off as he stepped in front of me. That began to piss me off, and it didn't help that they were all yelling at the same time at me.

"Do you not remember what he tried to do to you?" Mason yelled. That was the feather that broke the camel's back.

"Yes, actually I do! And it sure as hell isn't the bullshit story you tried selling to me!" Everyone became quiet real soon as the words left my mouth. Even Mason stood paralyzed.

"What are you talking about?" Kayla asked calmly.

"I know what I saw that day is true." I shot dagger eyes at Mason.

"Jesus, not this again," Mason threw his hands in the air and let them fall back to his side.

"I'm not going to have this discussion again," he said as he walked to the door.

"I know what you are!" I yelled, my back to him. From the looks on everybody else's face I could tell he stopped in his tracks.

"What are you talking about?" We both turned around at the same time to face one another.

"I told you I was going to get to the bottom of this," I sneered.

"By going someplace alone with Stephen?" He sneered.

"At least he answered my questions and didn't keep secrets from me like my supposed friends were supposed to do!" Mason looked down at the carpet.

"What do you know?" Kayla asked this time.

"I know that Mason tried making me believe that what I saw that day with Stephen was just my imagination when really it wasn't."

"What did you see?" Vlad asked.

"I saw fangs come out through Stephen's lips. He was going to puncture my neck before you, Mason, and Kayla showed up in a crouching position, hissing with white sharp fangs." Everyone remained quiet. Mason turned to me with the look of awe in his eyes.

"Alexa, please," he pleaded.

"Enough Mason! Calling Stephen to come and hypnotize me so that I can forget everything that happened isn't going to work! Why keep lying to me?" I pleaded him.

"I find it offensive," I said. He just kept staring into my eyes.

"If you really don't want me to know about you guys, even though Lexie is allowed to, then I'll just go tell Stephen that he can finally have his snack," I said, ready to take a step forward.

"Don't you dare do it?" Mason demanded as he stepped closer to me.

"Why?" I whispered. He looked away.

"There's no point in denying it anymore Mason," Kayla said.

"Alexa is just as much as important to us like Lexie. I think it's only fair she know it too. I'm sure she won't go around telling anyone," Kayla spoke as she faced me.

"It's not my business to tell," I reassured them. Mason still hadn't looked at me.

"What's done is done Mason," Kayla told him. Mason turned to her.

"I guess you're right. Either way, she's a very good observer." Mason turned to me.

"You _were_ the one who said I'm a smart girl and could figure it out on my own." He smiled.

"No more lies," he told me. I smiled. Then, all of a sudden, Vlad pulled us into a group hug. We began to laugh.

I took off my boots and threw myself on my bed. Kayla and Vlad began to say good-night and gave me one last hug. A couple of minutes later Lexie walked Malik to his car. Once again, it was down to me and Mason. I noticed him staring at the picture frame of my grandparents.

"We took that picture last year in the summer. It was about time the sun had set. Grandma was happy because she was finally going to be able to revive her rose garden. Grandpa and I just happened to be swinging on the white wooden bench singing some old Beatles songs." I took a short pause as I tried to remember the summer breeze.

"Before grandma had come to us with a camera she had found, we were singing yesterday all our troubles seem so far away in yesterday," I sung in front of Mason.

"I hope those are tears of joy," he told me. I quickly wiped the tear away, and nodded.

"Are you still sticking to your hypothesis?" Mason stood up and made his way to the door.

"Most definitely, I was going to leave it aside so that I can figure out what is going on with Aunt Maggie. " Mason cleared his throat.

"Just take it one step at a time, okay?" His voice became soft, just the way it did when he whispered into my ear that if I ever needed help, I could count on him.

"I will. I'm just glad to know the truth."


	9. Chapter 9: Vampire

Chapter 9:

Vampire

The next morning I woke up twenty minutes before Lexies' alarm rang. This time I was going to let the alarm wake her up. I ran to the restroom first and it was cold and lonely. I looked at myself in the mirror and I looked like I had just woken up from a bad night of sex. I headed back to the room to grab a towel; it was time for me to smell good. I ran to the shower room and stepped onto the ice marbled floor. I turned the knob up to the right to release warm water. As soon as the water pounded against my skin, my muscles had relaxed and the texture of the water felt so good. I shampooed twice, applied body wash onto my skin, and conditioned for a minute or two. After I stepped out of the shower to grab the towel, this sudden air embraced me and the skin on my arms had gotten goose bumps. I got the chills for a bit.

When I got back to the room, I noticed Lexie's alarm was in pieces lying about on the carpet. I looked up to find her standing on her bed. She gave me an apologetic look.

"I didn't know how else to make it shut up," she defended. I bent down to pick up a piece of the alarm that had a button on it.

"It's called the off button," I told her as I showed her the piece.

"Oh, right," she said.

I began to slip my underwear underneath my towel and then put on my bra over my towel because I felt uncomfortable being butt-naked in front of her. I then proceeded to draw on the repulsive uniform they made us wear. I looked for my blow dryer so that I can straighten my split bangs in a curvy way.

"I thought your hair was straight," Lexie commented.

"No, I just straighten it. It's naturally loose curls," I retaliated. I then, proceeded to do my eyeliner and mascara.

"You don't wear foundation?" Lexie asked.

"Nope, my skin is clear as it is and I don't want to fuck it up," I replied.

"Oh."

"No offense," I told her quick.

"None taken," she said as she finished doing her make-up. I was done by the time the clock stroke 7:15.

"It's pretty early, are we still going in car?" I asked her.

"Yes we are," boomed Kayla's voice out of nowhere. She walked in through the door.

"How'd you-"

"Vampires have amazing hearing," she cut me off.

"We can hear from almost a mile away."

"Sort of like dogs?" I asked her unsure whether she would take it the wrong way.

"If you're going to compare me to a dog, I'd appreciate you compare me to a cute husky puppy," she said with a smile.

"Sorry," I whispered.

"It's okay; you've got lots to learn, now, chop-chop. The guys are getting impatient already." She sped off in a blur towards the door.

"Did you-"

"Vampires also have major speed," Lexie cut me off. We made our way to Malik's white Chrysler, and once again I was stuck with the crazed love birds in the back.

As soon as we pulled up to the lot, Mason was already standing by his car in his uniform, that may I say really brought out his eyes and muscles.

"Early again," Mason teased Lexie.

"Oh put a sock in it," she hissed. He found it amusing. Mason noticed me walking behind the blood-thirsty lovers and motioned to me.

"Good-morning," I told him.

"You okay?" He asked.

"Let's just say my stomach feels queasy with all the snogging those love birds like to do in the back. They almost ripped each other's clothes off. They didn't even seem to notice me being pushed back into the window," I replied in a calm way. He only laughed.

"Well, how about I pick you?" he said nervously. I kind of got nervous to reply back.

"Will you be my knight in shining armor," I teased and gave him a smirk. He gave a light laugh.

"Only if you don't lag to get ready in the morning," he replied.

"Deal," I said as I extended my hand out to him. He got a hold of it to shake, and once again the electric current spread through my veins. I pulled back and so did he.

"Is that like some vampire thing?" I asked him unsettled.

"Umm, no, I don't know why that happens. It's odd that it only happens with you," he replied shyly as he rubbed the back of his neck. I looked away.

"So, listen. Do you have any idea what happened to Aunt Maggie?" He got a hold of my forearm and pulled me away from the group. He pulled me to a bench that stood beside a freshly cut bush.

"Umm, yeah, I do," he whispered.

"Well, what happened?" He began to look around before he got closer to me.

"A shape shifter," he simply said. My head flinched back a little.

"Didn't Stephen tell you some of us have special abilities?" I nodded a yes to him.

"Well, what you thought was your Aunt Maggie was actually a shape shifter that works for the Conclave." He began to lose me.

"The Conclave is like emperors of the vampire world, or species. They set the rules for us so that we're able to share the community with humans." I just kept staring at him.

"The reason they had a shape shifter transform into your aunt was because they found out about the incident with Stephen. I told them that you kept pursuing your idea of something strange happening with the people on campus, so they decided to find out themselves what you knew," he whispered. I began to soak in his words.

"They've been watching me?" I asked him.

"Not that I know of, why?" I remembered the mornings that I woke up with the window open.

"My window has been left open in the morning when I've clearly had it closed the night before," I told him.

"What?" he began to search my body.

"Mason, I'm fine. I don't think they touched me," I reassured him. He stopped.

"If it was just a shape shifter, then how did the window shatter and the doors fly open?"

"Some of us are able to have more than one ability, but it's rare to find any who do."

"What was her second ability?"

"She can control the weather." I remembered the wind spiraling all over the place with trails of leaves.

"Why did she react that way?" Mason leaned his upper body forward placing his elbows on his knees.

"Shape shifters don't like to be questioned who they are when they have shifted.


	10. Chapter 10: Answers

Chapter 10:

Answers

The next day after school I got this sudden urge to go back to the olden house. I still had a spare of keys hidden in one of my socks, and I still didn't think it was time to go see Aunt Maggie. Unfortunately, without her, I had no way to get there, and I also didn't want her to try and stop me in case she disapproved of my decision. My last choice was Mason. He's shown me that I could trust him just a tiny bit more. I didn't think it would hurt to ask, but I was wrong.

"I'm sorry, but I have to go hunting with Kayla. If we don't go, we won't be able to control our thirst around you and Lexie," he had told me after I asked him for the favor. I began to whine, but then I realized I would be putting myself and Lexie, maybe even the humans on this campus, in danger because of my selfishness. He noticed the disappointment on my face.

"Why do you want to go back Alexa?" The tone in his voice gave me the impression he was going to try to stop me from going, just the way I dreaded Aunt Maggie would. I didn't know how to answer his question.

"I just-find some peace of mind," I tried to convince him, maybe even myself as well. He gave me an eerie look. He didn't believe me. I sighed in defeat.

"I honestly don't know why. I just have this gut urging feeling to go. Instinct," I tried explaining to him. He turned his gaze to the empty yellow orange blazing field. I then heard him sigh.

"Maybe, Vlad could take you," he told me. My face grew a smile. I could probably see my eyes light up inside his.

"Do you really think he would do me the favor?" I tried not to sound too hopeful.

"For being a good observer you're not so good," he teased. My head flinched back.

"What do you mean?" I asked a little hurt.

"Haven't you noticed how Vlad acts with you?" I then remembered how Vlad had helped Mason with Stephen and how he reacted really angry, yet worried when I was with Stephen alone. I couldn't believe I had missed it.

"You think he really cares?" I hoped he hadn't misinterpreted my question.

"Of course he does. He sees you like his little sister. May I say literally little," he joked. I smacked his arm playfully. He laughed. He checked his watch and gave me an apologetic look.

"I have to get going. Here, let me see your phone." He ordered. I handed it to him and he dialed a number.

"Good luck, and make sure to call me when you get back." He then disappeared.

"Hello? Hello? Alexa, are you there?" I heard Vlad's voice clearly from my cell phone.

"Hey, yeah I'm here," I answered quickly.

"Hey, what a surprise, what can help you with?"

"Umm, I kind of need to make a two hour drive, but," I hesitated to ask.

"But," he said in an exaggerated way.

"But, I don't have a ride," I said quickly.

"Where should I pick you up?" He caught me off guard.

"You're serious?" I gasped.

"Of course I am. Knowing you now, even if I said no, you would find a way to get a ride. I'd rather take you myself because I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if something happened to you, and just between us two, Mason would kill me if I let you go with someone else." He didn't sound very worried though.

"Thank you," I whispered.

"You're welcome, so where do I pick you up?"

"The lot."

"Alright, be there in three minutes, and I mean three." He then clicked and I booked it to the lot.

He got there at the same time I did. He pulled up beside me in his marbled black Brabus Mercedes Benz and I jumped in. I literally did since he had the top down. Next thing I knew, my dark ash brown curls spiraled behind me as the wind hit my face once Vlad sped off.

We actually ended up getting there in an hour. I had forgotten vampires love speed. I told Vlad to pull up in the driveway of the gloomy abandoned cottage house. Suddenly, the baby hairs on the top of my neck stood up as I stepped onto the cracked concrete floor.

"You sure you want to do this?" He put his right arm over my shoulder. I nodded. I took a deep breath before I took my first step.

We walked up to the front door and I admired the lion knocker once again. I caressed the rectangular carvings on the smooth wooden floor. I stuck the key inside the key hole and turned it to the left while I softly pushed the door forward. I stuck my head in first worried someone, or something, will pop out of nowhere. I then felt a hand on my shoulder and I pushed the air in my lungs out.

"Hey, remember you didn't come alone. As long as I'm here, I won't let anything happen to you," he reassured me. I nodded.

I stepped into the freezing room where on my right was the living room. I made my way slowly into the room and all the furniture was still in its place the way we had left it. Even the coffee table was still shifted diagonally on the carpet the way it was when my grandma's body was lying next to it. I then made my way into the billiard room. The pool table still had the balls scattered around from that night we were playing. The pool sticks were lying about near the table's leg. I then saw grandpa's glass cup still half emptied of scotch and my glass half emptied of apple juice.

"It seems to me that no one dared to come into the house to clean it up," said Vlad.

"My grandpa and I were playing stripes and solids before we heard the commotion." I told him out of nowhere. I then made my way up the carpeted stairs into my grandparent's bedroom. Their bed was neatly made and I saw my grandpa's house shoes at the foot of the bed next to my grandma's old pair. I walked out and went into the room that used to be Aunt Maggie's and my mom's. The walls were a baby pink. Two twin beds stood parallel to each other each standing next to the wall. Magazines were still lying about in a wool basket in between the beds. I could have sworn I could still smell sweet strawberry scent perfume lingering in the room. I then made way to my room. The light teal walls were still covered of quotes that I would paint just about anywhere that was noticeable. My bed still had my cover spread neatly on top of it with the top part folded just a bit under the pillows.

"It smells a lot like you in here, but it smells a bit different than yourself right now," said Vlad. I walked down the same stairs to head to grandma's studio. As I stood inches from the door, I became hesitant to open the door.

"Are you okay?" I nodded and lightly pushed the door open. Some of grandma's paintings lay on the floor sideways and I imagined grandma struggling against the vampire while he pushed her against the wall to each painting. I noticed the paintings of the somber forests with their bright eyes behind the dark. I saw the sunset beaches to the side that I could almost see the shriveled water fall down to the floor. The only paintings still standing were the covered ones and the one grandma was working on.

"What a mess," said Vlad. I made my way to the covered paintings. I outstretched my right arms toward hesitantly. I kind of hoped to have grandma's frail painting hand stop me, but nothing happened. Not even her spirit stopped me. I thought, maybe now it's time to see what grandma has been hiding. I got a grip on the cover and pulled it downwards in a flash. Before me stood an image of an unfamiliar male face. His eyes were a radiant red like the shape shifter from my Aunt Maggie's office. His skin was smoothened down to perfection, almost squared. His lips had a slight bit of fangs laying against it. He had a trickle of blood down the corner of his lip. He looked malicious, just the way Stephen looked when he wanted to have a bite.

"Why is there a painting of him here," Vlad gasped. I turned to look at him.

"You know who this is?" He nodded, but didn't elaborate. I then made my way to the covered painting a bit behind the first one in a diagonal position. I pulled on it and a painting of a women drenched in blood appeared. Her belly was cut open, and you can see a baby lying in a ball inside of it.

"What the," Vlad didn't even finish his sentence. I moved onto the third one and an image of a toddler with green eyes stood smiling with her teddy bear hanging by her left side as she was holding onto one of his paws. She had two pigtails in loose dark ash brown curls. She had two deep dimples on each side of her cheek as she hardly smiled.

"That looks like you, except she has green eyes, although you kind of have a mix of the color in your irises," Vlad mumbled. I then moved on to the last painting. In the middle of the scene sat a young boy smiling, his body facing the left side, while his knees were brought up to his chest. His head turned to look at us. His light ash brown hair fell a bit over his small almond eyes. His irises were clear blue with a hint of grey, almost like Vlad's but darker.

"He looks familiar," said Vlad. I turned to see his almond eyes wide open.

"You know him too?" His left hand reached to caress the boy's face as he closed his eyes. I looked at the painting carefully as well. I then gasped.

"He sort of looks like you," I whispered to myself. I turned to see the back of the unfinished painting grandma was working on. I saw her wooden pallet spilled near the leg of the base holding the cardboard paper. The brushed lay gently next to it. I walked around the painting to get a good look at it. I lost my breath when I caught the scenery. Vlad moved fast behind me and stood still as well.

It was my mother's face leaning on top of an image of me. Both of us were smiling like if nothing had ever happened. It was just our heads floating in thin air, but what shook me the most was the face behind and in between me and my mother's face. It was the image of the little boy from the painting before. I turned to look at Vlad who was dead solid standing behind me. I couldn't even see his chest lift up as it would have when he tried to breath.

"Vlad, are you okay?" I placed my left hand on his shoulder. No pulse. I then placed my right hand on his shoulder. No sudden move. I shook him, even though I knew he wouldn't move because he was a heavy rock compared to me, but I was able to move him just an inch. He realized what I had done at the same time I did and we both made eye contact quick.

"How did you," he was at loss of words. I looked down at the floor.

"I don't know," I whispered. I turned back around to face the painting. My right hand made its way toward it to caress it. All of a sudden, a vast of images ran through my head. My mind had gone on overload; it was too much for me to take in. Flashes of the odd conversations I had with my grandma flew across my thoughts. A flash of my grandpa not answering my questions about what my grandma was talking about ran around in my head. My mother's face, the vampire's face, and the little boy's face hit me hard on the front of my brain. After a while, my body became numb, my sight became a blur, and little by little my hearing became faint. After that, it all became a pitch black hole.

When I came back to my senses, I was lying down on a stiff, yet soft mattress. I looked around and saw the desk where Lexie had sat on yesterday. I turned to find Mason sitting on his one seat antique leather couch. His brilliant turquoise eyes had the heartbreaking look of awe once again. I lifted my upper body up in a flash. Mason was by my side in a mil second.

"Hey, are you okay," he said softly as his ice stone hand caressed my left temple.

"What happened?" I croaked.

"Vlad said you fainted in your grandma's studio. He flipped out and brought you to me. Luckily, Kayla and I had just gotten back from our hunt," he sighed.

"How long was I out?"

"Almost an hour." I inhaled and exhaled slowly.

"Where's Vlad?"

"He left abruptly after he laid you down. He looked pissed, yet confused. Kayla went after him."

"What? Why?" I panted.

"I don't know. He wouldn't say a word."

"What happened?" he asked as his voice became unsettled. I had a few flashbacks of the flashbacks that invaded my head. I remembered Vlad become paralyzed to the paintings I unfolded. I stood up fast and made my way out the door.

"Where are you going?" Mason yelled after me.

"To my Aunt Maggie's office. It's about time I get some answers."


	11. Chapter 11: Secrets

Chapter 11:

Secrets

I ran down the abandoned streets, past the modern buildings that tried to fit in with the small village. I passed the circle where I had my one moment with Mason and straight to the building where I was about to be attacked by a shape shifter. I sped through the stairs because I didn't want to waste time waiting for the elevator to come down, open the doors like if I had eternity to wait, get inside, wait until the doors closed at the speed of a snail, and back up to wait for it to open up again. I sped through the dark red halls and up to the door where the thick pale woman in old fashioned designer clothes sped right out of. I slowed down my pace as I heard this overwhelming argument going on in my Aunt Maggie's office. Mason appeared near the door, his ears perked up. I made my way next to him.

"Answer my question?" I heard Vlad's voice booming into the atmosphere. There was no reply. After the silence, I heard a fist, heavy like a large rock, be dropped onto the desk.

"I won't leave until you tell me why there is a painting of me and my parent's in that room?" he yelled again. I then heard the desk smash into a wall.

"Okay! Okay," Aunt Maggie panted. There was a short pause.

"Tell me," I could clearly hear Vlad sneer.

"My parents found out what had happened to you," Aunt Maggie began.

"You're parents?" Vlad asked confused.

"Your grandparents, to clarify even more," she said.

"What?"

"Your mother is my sister," Aunt Maggie stuttered.

"I thought you would remember," she whispered.

"My memory became a bit faint after I transformed," Vlad said in a soft tone than the one before.

"Well, unfortunately, my mother didn't take the news very well. The news only caused a lot of folks back then to call her crazy. After a while, my father was able to convince my mother to express herself in her art, and Abigail came back after you and your father disappeared. Both her and my mother became depressed." Aunt Maggie's voice became shaky while she tried holding back her tears.

"Then, after about almost two years later, your father came back to look for her. She expected you to be with him, but you weren't. Abigail began to think you had forgotten her and thought you hated her, but your father reassured her that soon she would get to see you again. With that being said to her, she didn't think twice about leaving with him again. A couple of months later, Abigail came back to us, but her belly was huge. She looked like she was ready to explode. She told us your father had vanished after they had an argument about her keeping the baby. Abigail knew what would happen if she had it, but no matter what, she wouldn't think about killing it to save herself."

"It?" I whispered as low as I could so that Vlad wouldn't hear me.

"My mother was devastated; she didn't want to lose Abigail again. Abigail begged both my parents to take the baby in after it was born. Grandpa agreed quickly, but grandma was hesitant to answer her. A few weeks later," Aunt Maggie began to cry. I couldn't hear a single sound come from Vlad.

"Abigail went into labor," Aunt Maggie continued.

"Her screams became shrieks. I saw the fear in her eyes as I held her frozen fragile hand. Every bit of sweat came out of her pores as the baby began to rip through her belly. With every skin that was pulling away from each other like cracks, she shrieked even louder. My father couldn't stand to see her in her miserable state. He grabbed a knife and cut across the bottom of her belly. Abigail screamed her lungs out. Next thing I knew, her belly was fully open, and inside was a beautiful baby girl. Grandpa pulled the baby out and cleaned her up quickly to hand her over to Abigail. She was out of breath; her heart began to slow down. She kissed the baby on her blood dried forehead while she whispered 'I love you'. She told us she loved us as well and thanked us. The last thing she said was to protect the baby from your father. She made us promise her to keep her safe and to watch over you in case you ever needed help. That was her last breath, her last wish." Aunt Maggie could no longer control her sobs.

I found myself on the verge to do so as well. Mason hugged me from behind. I began to lose my temper. More flashbacks of my grandma came to my mind. Especially, the one three days before she died when she had said 'baby boy'. I found myself push Mason back and burst into the room with my tears creating a salty river down my cheeks, dripping from below my chin.

"I killed her?" I shrieked. Vlad and Aunt Maggie turned to look at me with their almond eyes open far wide as they could be. Mason got a hold of me from the back trying to calm me down.

"Answer me?" I yelled at my Aunt Maggie. Vlad moved toward the new grand window. My sobs had gotten out of control.

"Alexa," Aunt Maggie choked.

"Tell her!" Vlad yelled. Aunt Maggie began to hunch over.

"We only wanted to keep you safe. We didn't want you to have any emotional problems if you found out what really happened," Aunt Maggie whimpered. I began to struggle in Mason's grip.

"He was looking for me?" I whimpered. Aunt Maggie fell on her knees.

"I killed my mother and my grandparents," I mumbled to myself. I felt Mason's hold tighten around me.

"That explains why I had such a strong connection towards you," Vlad said to me. My eyes then made their way to his. I saw him make his way involuntarily slow for a vampire towards me. I let my head fall down as he got closer. I saw Vlad's arms outstretch before my petite body. Mason let me go, and I collapsed into Vlad's chest. His arms pulled me close as they wrapped themselves around my neck. My arms pulled him close to me as I wrapped them around his waist.

"You're my little sister," he whispered into my ear. As he said it, our bodies embraced each other even close as we let our sobs sing a blue song.

"I'm sorry," I whispered to him. He hushed me. After two minutes we departed. I knelt before my Aunt Maggie as her sobs became soft.

"The vampire that killed my grandparents was looking for me?" I asked her. She nodded.

"What does he want from me?"

"I don't know," Aunt Maggie whispered.

"What does he want from me?" I yelled in her face.

"I don't know!" she retaliated as her head flinched up to look me in the eyes.

"I believe I have an idea," said Vlad. I stood up and waited for him to continue.

"My father came to look for me, I think before you were born. He was in despair as he told me my mother was planning on having her baby. He said she would die if she let it happen. He told me he promised to kill the baby if it were born. He wasn't going to stop until he'd find it. I guess he finally found you, and he's sticking to his promise."

Suddenly, a swift of massive air ran through the room. A clan of pale faces stood around us in dark black robes with red underneath, Vampires.

"Enough!" A pale man with golden eyes and dirty blonde hair said.

"What are you doing here?" Mason spoke this time since the longest.

"Trying to protect ourselves," The man replied.

"Who are you?" I asked him.

"That should be none of your concern," he replied with calm.

"To your luck, it is," I sneered.

"Watch your tone," he said as he burrowed his eyes at me. I returned the gesture.

"Protect ourselves from what?" Vlad spoke this time.

"You two know enough. Just let us do our job."

Mason moved in front of me.

"Xavier?" Mason hissed.

"Xavier," I whispered to myself. He turned his gaze toward me. He then made his way towards me, but Mason became more guarded before me. I then heard him growl under his breath.

"Step aside," Xavier commanded as he buried his eyes into Mason's. Mason slowly began to move to the side, and involuntarily my left hand got a hold of his left arm to pull him back a bit.

"It's okay," Mason whispered.

"How peculiar," said Xavier. He then took quick steps near me and bellowed his face near my neck. He took a sniff the way Stephen did.

"Let me guess, my scent is a sweet mixture of human and a tender smell close to a vampire," I snickered more comfortably. His head flinched back as he gazed into my eyes. I believe I heard Mason growl once again.

"How'd you know?"

"Let's just say a little birdie told me." Mason growled once more.

"Has the birdie mentioned your strength?" he snickered in a flirtatious way.

"A bit, but I'd prefer to hear it from an expert's point of view," I flirted back as I took a step closer to his face. His eyes glowed a bit.

"For a human, you seem to be able to move a vampire at least an inch. If any ordinary human tried to do it, it would be like moving a boulder."

"I guess I'm special," I purred as my fingers caressed his robe gently.

"I guess you are," he whispered as his face began to close in against mine.

"Enough!" Mason sneered and came in between me and Xavier.

"Mason's right. We need to analyze this new information. Vincent will appreciate to hear it," said a slim pale woman with the hood of the robe over her head. Xavier gave me a crooked smile.

"Indeed he will," he said and took a few steps back.

"We'll meet again," he said as they disappeared.

"What the hell was all that about?" Mason hissed once he turned to face me.

"I was just trying to get information from him. How else do you think I got something out of Stephen?" He flinched back a little, and then he got mad again.

"You flirted with Stephen! What else did you do, huh?" I took a step back.

"Whoa, calm down. I hope you're not trying to insinuate I'm a tramp," I sneered.

"You sure seem to do whatever it takes to get your way."

"Whoa, okay Mason in case you forgot she's my sister and I won't let you talk to her like that," Vlad hissed. Mason put his hands up in front his chest and took a step back. I turned to look at my Aunt Maggie who was now standing near the window. I walked to her.

"I'm sorry. I didn't want you to find out this way. Believe me, all I wanted to do was protect you. I didn't want you to get hurt, or feel guilty about what happened," she mumbled on and on. I placed my hands on her shoulder shushing her.

"You were only keeping your promise," I whispered. She pulled me into a hug and squeezed as tight as she could.

"Just remember Alexa, it was your mother's decision to have you. She knew what would happen if she did,' she reassured me. Next thing I knew, Vlad was part of the hug as well. Then, we felt another pair of arms around us.

"Umm, Mason?" Vlad asked.

"Mhmm," Mason replied.

"What are you doing?" I asked him.

"Hugging you guys," he replied.

We all tried to get a look at him. When we did, he had his eyes closed with a smile.

"What?" he finally asked as he noticed our stares. We kept a hold on it.

"I just felt left out is all," he defended as he pulled away from us. We all gave a light laugh.

"I'm glad all of that is over with," Aunt Maggie said as she wiped a tear away.

"I'm just glad Alexa is my sister," Vlad said as he put his arm around me.

"I just hope your dad doesn't find me," I told him.

Aunt Maggie and he gave me an eerie look. I looked back at them with the same look.

"What do you mean _my _dad?" Vlad asked crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"Well, yeah. Your dad is looking for me because our mother died giving birth to me. He must also be pissed off because I'm not his child." Aunt Maggie and Vlad flinched back a bit and looked at each other with concern.

"What?" I asked.

"Nothing, we just hope he doesn't find you either," Vlad said and Aunt Maggie wouldn't look away from him.

"I don't think that's it," I questioned.

"Okay, you caught us," he said as Aunt Maggie's eyes grew wider.

"It surprises us how well you're taking all this information," he finished and Aunt Maggie turned to look at me with a smile and her head began to bounce up and down.

"Uh-huh," I said and turned my gaze onto Mason to see if he believed them as well. Unfortunately, he seemed emotionless.

"Well, I just hope your dad will get this crazy idea out of his head. If he loved our mother very much, he would stop searching for me," I said as I made my way towards the door.

"You're right," Vlad mentioned and he followed behind. I turned to look at my Aunt Maggie.

"I'm glad there are no more secrets," I said and walked away.


	12. Chapter 12: Sickness

Chapter 12

Sickness

A few days had gone by and the relationship between Vlad and I grew with care. I hardly went to go visit my Aunt Maggie, which I bet must have been a relief for her. This whole week had been hectic, and I was glad it was Friday evening. We were in our usual kicking spot at the recreation room. Kayla, Lexie, Vlad, and Malik were playing pool table, couple versus couple. Mason decided to challenge me in a game of air hockey. I accepted his challenged and asked my grandpa, who may rest in peace, to help me beat Mason. Mason had let me score two points in the first two minutes, which pissed me off.

"You know, I'd appreciate it if you didn't go easy on me," I had told him after I made my third shot.

"Believe me, I don't want to make you cry," he snickered.

"I'm not a little girl for you to be so worried about playing a fun innocent game of air hockey fair and square," I told him.

"You know, I'm hearing a lot of blabbering and less playing," he teased. I bent over the air hockey table a bit to get a good look at him.

"Give me all you've got," I said.

Next thing I knew, the puck had flown right past my arms and into the slot. I looked up to meet his eyes. He gave me a wink. I winked back as I pulled out the puck from the slot and hit it with the red mallet, causing the puck to zigzag in an unbelievable speed and into his slot. His head flinched down to stare at the slot and up to me in disbelief.

"That's what I call game," I snickered. He flashed me an incandescent crooked smile that was breath taking that I hadn't realized he scored.

"Guess, you should learn not to celebrate too early," he teased. I gave him my famous scowl and hit the puck as hard as I could, but he had been able to return the favor. For about two minutes straight, the poor puck had been going back and forth none stop that I could feel the tension of friction between my hand and the table. Finally, he had made a score.

"Ha, three to four," he said while I rapidly hit the puck straight into the slot. His bright smile seized.

"A wise person once said to me, 'you should learn not to celebrate too early'," I teased him while I gave him a wink from my left eye. He only smirked. Once again the miniature puck went through another cycle of torture between Mason's red mallet and mine. After another two minutes, Mason had caught up with me.

"How about this proposal," Mason's voice danced through my ear drums.

"The one who scores this last shot wins," he finished.

"Deal," I said as I served the puck. When Mason hit it, the puck rapidly crashed onto the rail to his left causing it to slide to the opposite side of the rail, and spiral in the middle before my mallet was able to make contact with it. I hit the puck and made it go straight to his left corner for him to fight with it to free it. I smirked when I saw him struggle. By that time, the others where finished with their game and they huddled around us, and the table. You can automatically feel the tension and heat make this electric current between Mason and me.

The current was so strong, that when we both noticed the puck slowdown in the middle, we both launched for it, and as soon as we met in the middle, his hand made contact with mine, and this urge of electricity flew straight through my veins, bloodstream, and right into my heart. I felt my body tremble as I became weak. My sight was starting to see black spots, my hearing faint, and all I could think at that point was, not again. I felt my body become numb as I slowly began to descend over the edge of the air hockey table, stumbling down to the white fluffed carpet. I saw his dark lucent eyes in awe, and all I wanted to do was reach out for him, but by that time, my body had shut down.

I woke up once again in an estranged room. I was lying down on soft beige fabric that outlined a sofa. I noticed a fireplace lit with a blazing orange light. I looked around to try and grasp the furniture in my surroundings. I stood up, maybe a bit too quick, because I only ended up stumbling back down. By the time my body had hit the cushion, Mason was by my side.

"Hey, are you okay? I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you, or anything in that aspect. I don't know what happened. That's never happened before. I'm so sorry," he ranted as his palm touched my warm forehead. Al I did was look into his eyes.

"What's going on here?" I whispered to him.

"I honestly don't know," he whispered back. His head bent down, his eyes looking away from mine.

"Alexa!" Vlad knelt by my side.

"Please tell me you're okay," he pleaded in worry.

"I'm fine," I croaked. He lifted me from my waist and up to embrace me.

"I just want to know what happened."

"I think I can be of great help," spoke a pale man with dark brown hair brushed back. He was tall, about Mason's height. He was a bit more muscular. His eyes were a lucent mix of Mason's and Kayla's eyes. His smile was heartwarming.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Mason's father, Stanley, but call me Stan," he replied in a smooth vibrant tone. I sat up. Mason and Vlad took their seats next to me. In that moment, Kayla, Lexie, and Malik walked in to stand by the walls. After they took their place, another pale woman walked in with long brunette hair alike Kayla's. I'm guessing her mother. Their features were so alike, she made it look like if she were the original and Kayla the copy. Grandpa forbid Kayla's special ability is being a mind reader. She'd suck the blood out of me till I was nothing but dry meat if she heard what I said.

"So, what can you tell me?" I asked him to shake the thoughts out of my mind.

"Attraction," he said simply. I flinched back a bit.

"Attraction?" I asked. He nodded before he continued.

"You and Mason have some sort of attraction."

"But, that's never happened to me with other girls," Mason said.

"Or me with other guys," I added. Stan kept processing the possibilities in his mind.

"Maybe, this is a different, quite special, attraction between you guys," he said.

"Friendship attraction?" Vlad tried to guess.

"Soul mates, but in this occasion I'd say without the soul part," Stan tried to kid. He gave a light chuckle after a while.

"Never!" Mason hissed.

"Mason," his mother said. I was a bit hurt, to be honest.

"You know that's not possible after-" Mason stopped himself when he noticed I was still in the room right next to him.

"After?" I whispered.

"None of your business," Mason hissed.

"Mason!" Vlad sneered. Mason stood up quick.

"There must be another reason," he said more calmly.

"You didn't let me finish," Stan said.

"You two haven't felt the shock before because it only happens vampire to vampire. That's how Alma and I felt every time we touched, especially every time we kissed," he said with a genuine smile as Alma made her way to sit on his lap.

"The only problem here is that, Alexa isn't a vampire. And, either way, the shock shouldn't have been that strong to cause her to lose consciousness. And It's quite odd that you didn't really feel a sting of some sort," he mentioned to Mason.

"There still has to be another reason," he whispered as he walked away. I pushed myself back in a slump.

"Don't take it to the heart," Alma said apologetically. I tried to respond with a smile.

"If, I figure out another possibility for this," Stan said.

"I'll be sure to contact you," he finished. I nodded and stood up quick only to feel a bit weak. Thankfully, Vlad caught me.

"You okay?" he asked me. I nodded.

"Thank you," I whispered to them and made my way out with everyone else on my heels.

I got into Vlad's black Mercedes Benz, while everyone else got into Malik's white Chrysler.

"Don't pay any attention to Mason," Vlad said as he pulled out of the drive way of Mason's parent's wooden glass house.

"I don't understand Mason," I began to confess.

"Mason's hurt," Vlad tried to explain.

"Is it a girl?" Vlad nodded so that he wouldn't say anything he wasn't supposed to.

"It doesn't mean he has to take it out on me," I complained. He kept his sight on the road and didn't say anything else.

The next morning, when I woke up and headed to the restroom and finished brushing my teeth and washing my face, I took a good look in the mirror. I noticed I had gotten paler than usual. I placed my right palm on my forehead, instead of my temperature being hot, it was ice cold. I gasped and shook my head. I took another good look in the mirror and my skin was still snow white. I looked away and headed back to the room to get dressed and get some breakfast. Lexie was gone by then. She has quite the appetite for a small girl.

As soon as I was done slipping in my dark caramel boots, I heard a light knock on the door.

"Come in!" I turned around to see who it was. It was the one and only woman on her menstrual cycle at the moment, Mason. I crossed my arms in front of my chest.

"What do you want?" I said coldly.

"What happened to your warm caramel skin?"

"Don't change the subject," I sneered.

"I came to apologize," he said as he looked down at his feet.

"Apology not accepted," I said as I sped past him and made it downstairs in less than a minute.

"Whoa," I said to myself to my sudden speed.

"How'd you," Mason said as he appeared next to me. I walked away from him.

"Hold up," Mason said as he pulled me back by my arm and into him.

"Let go," I hissed. He put his hands up and took a step back. I proceeded on making my way to the dining room.

After ten minutes, Mason had caught up with me by the foot of the entrance of the dining room.

"Look, I don't see why you're so mad about what I said. It's not like you and I have some sort of commitment!" I could see his turquoise eyes bulging out.

"It's not what you said it's how you said it!" I fought back.

"How did I say it?"

"You said it like if I were some sort of disease you didn't want to catch!" He threw his ends up in surrender and looked away from me as he opened the door for me to walk in. I just sighed and made my way to the table. Some people were staring at us. I figured they were vampires because it was quite loud in the dining room for any human to hear the discussion between me and Mason.

"That didn't sound so beautiful," Kayla said as we both took our seat. We both shrugged.

The cooks placed plates full of sizzled bacon, sausage links with their tender juice squeezing itself out of its inside, eggs with melted cheese flowing over them, and French toast warm with the scent of vanilla. The smell was enchanting, but as soon as I put a spoonful of egg followed by a bite of sausage link, and French toast, my stomach was pumping the substance back up. I rushed out of the room and into the restroom. I hurled over the toilet none step that I thought my guts were about to come slipping out of my mouth.

"Alexa," Lexie said worried as she pulled my hair back.

"What happened?" Kayla asked me as she handed me a wet paper towel. I sat on my ass in front of the toilet after I flushed it.

"I don't know. It was like if my stomach didn't want any food, so it handed it back to me," I replied in disbelief. They both helped me up as Lexie handed me her travel bag that had a miniature mouth wash bottle.

"Thanks," I said after I stopped gargling. I sighed and leaned against the porcelain sink.

"What happened to your skin?" Kayla asked.

"I don't know. I woke up like this." I made my way out the door heading back to the dining room.

"You okay little sis," Vlad said when I sat down.

"Yeah, I guess I'm skipping breakfast today."

Throughout the day I began to feel heavy. It took me a while to get up from a simple sturdy bench or chair. At times, I was only able to lift my arm up an inch. And for some reason, I felt warm when it was like zero degrees outside. I hoped I wasn't getting some sort of foreign disease that had gone airborne.

"Hey, you sure you don't want to shoot some hoops?" Vlad asked me.

"Believe me I do. I just don't feel so good."

"What's wrong?"

"I feel heavy."

"Don't tell me this is some 'oh, I'm fat please compliment me by saying I'm not'," he mimicked in his best girly voice. I laughed a little.

"No, I'm not those types of girls."

"Good. So then, what's wrong?"

"I must just be coming down with something," I replied while trying to get up.

"Is it really that hard to get up from a bench?" Vlad helped me up.

"I'm telling you, my weight feels heavy."

Suddenly, I began to see black spots once again, and my body began crashing down on me as I collapsed onto the concrete and lost consciousness one more time.

When I got my conscious back, I noticed I was in a hospital room and Mason's brother was hovering over me.

"Wha-what happened?"

"You fainted," Mason said worriedly once he was by my side. I rolled my eyes to his change of mood.

I tried siting back up, but my body still felt heavy. I groaned in exhaustion.

"I heard you haven't been feeling well," Mason's brother said.

"Yeah I must be coming down with something."

"Have you been bitten?" he asked me in a nervous tone.

"No, of course not."

"You sure you didn't let Stephen have a taste," Mason bickered.

"No," I said as I glared at him.

I turned to Mason's brother. "Why do you ask?"

"You seem to be having the symptoms," he said unsettled. I just looked straight at him waiting for him to explain.

"When a vampire doesn't make sure to not put venom in a human's bloodstream, the human begins to transform into a vampire as well. You seem to have the symptoms they receive when the venom settles in." My mouth popped open.

"That's impossible," Vlad whispered.

"She's never been bitten," Kayla finished for him.

"Well, I won't know what's wrong with her unless she lets me run some tests on her," he said sheepishly as he turned to look at me. I shook my head uncontrollably.

"Nu-huh. No thank you. I know I have not been bitten. I'm just getting sick," I said as I pushed myself off the hospital bed, only falling to the marbled floor. Mason and his brother helped me up.

"I think you should let him do them," Vlad said to me while he stood up. I looked away.

"Please Alexa, I don't want to lose you too," he gave me the guilt speech.

"I can assure you I'm fine," I choked. I made my way to the door.

"Alexa," Vlad pleaded.

"It's just a sickness," I said and closed the door.


	13. Chapter 13: Welcome to the Family

**I can't explain how much you guys make me smile with all your reviews for this story. I appreciate each and everyone of you who take the time to read it. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter because it might be a while until I update soon because I just started a new school. I promise I will try my best to update. I don't wish to torture you any further with all these mysteries, if you can call it that, but if i didn't than it wouldn't make the story interesting. HaHa. So, enjoy :)!**

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Chapter 13

Welcome to the Family

Two days had passed by and the sickness was growing by the faints. Vlad wouldn't stop babying me. Everywhere I went he would be there, and if I asked him to let me breath, to give me some space, I could sense him hiding like 100 feet away. It wasn't that I hated having him around, or realizing he was taking on the role of being an overprotective brother; on the contrary, I felt like he was filling the void in my heart ever since my, excuse me, our grandparent's death. It was all just too new, too weird for me. I knew somewhere deep down in the pits of my guts I was going to overcome this. A sickness comes and goes. The only problem about this sickness is not knowing what type of medicine will slowly reduce it. Mason and Vlad kept insisting I let Edward, Mason's older brother, run some tests on me just to make sure it wasn't anything serious. They'd expected me to fight back, but honestly, I had run out of theories. I was slowly beginning to give in.

"Okay, if I say yes to the tests, will you stop following me around everywhere I go?" I had asked Vlad after his fiftieth effort on persuading me to see Edward.

"Well, it depends on the result of the tests," he replied sheepishly.

"If, I don't have anything serious," I explained even further.

"Fine," he said vaguely.

"Okay than, I'll go over to his office after school."

"Or, how about now," he said as he pulled me off of the bench.

"Wait!" he stopped instantly.

"We can't skip class," I whispered to him while I looked around with my eyes to make sure nobody was staring, or listening to us.

"Yes we can. You have a perfect excuse."

"Well, what about you?"

"Please, we're vampires. We can do as we please," Kayla whispered when she made her way to my side.

"Are you all going to come?"

"Do you want us to?" Mason asked. I nodded shyly.

"Then let's go," Vlad said impatiently.

I always thought a visit to the doctor was supposed to be nerve wrecking, but Vlad seemed to prove otherwise. He sped walk as fast as he thought I could manage to go, which was almost a step behind his speed. After a while, he got tired of pulling and automatically stopped on his tracks. Everyone else was right beside us.

"And this is the part where you're going to teleport us," Kayla said as a know-it-all. He had a grin on his face while he nodded at her.

"You can teleport?" His nod shifted towards me.

"How'd you know he was going to do that?"

"I'm psychic," Kayla said with pride.

"How else did Mason, Vlad, and I make it on time to stop Stephen from making you his snack?"

"You saw that before it happened?" She was the one nodding now.

Suddenly, we all ambushed Edwards's office. He had his crystal colored eyes bulging out of his sockets with a cellphone pressed to his right ear when he noticed all of us huddled around his desk. To put the cherry on the top, he seemed to be more focused on me, maybe because I was still on Vlad's back.

"Umm, hi, sorry to barge in on you like this, but, we don't have an appointment and waiting is such a drag," I said to him dramatically. I noticed his lips stretched into a smile exposing his amazingly white brushed teeth. Maybe he as well ought to have been a dentist.

"Can I call you back later, I have an emergency that just came up," he said, and waited for the other person on the other end of the line to reply to him before he can hang up.

"I'm guessing you want to run the tests?" he still had his smile.

"I had no other option," I shrugged.

"Well, you did have death as a choice," he bickered.

"What, oh man, how come nobody told me?" I said teasingly. He laughed quite a bit.

"Let's get started." I jumped off Vlad's back and followed him down the white corridors and into an isolated Antarctic room. I shivered a bit when my ass touched the high plastic cushioned bench.

"I hope you're not afraid of needles," he said with his back to me.

"Pssh, please, I'm a big girl. I can handle anything."

"I'm glad to hear that." He turned around with a long silver needle looking at me with a malicious look. I gulped.

"Or maybe I was exaggerating," I whispered to myself. He took teasing steps toward me; it didn't help to see him smiling because to me now that smile was pure evil.

"Now stay still, you will only feel a pinch."

"That's what Stephen said," I squeaked while my eyes shut tight. I felt the needle go in for a slight second.

"Your skin is difficult to break," he told me. After a while, I saw crimson red gush out into the cylinder as Edward pulled the thing in the end back.

"There, that wasn't so bad." He patted my back gently.

"You guys wait here while I go run the blood samples," he said to all of us. We all nodded in unison.

Half an hour passed by. Vlad and Kayla were flirting with each other through whispers. Lexie and Malik were standing by the window, maybe looking at the clouds shift slowly into one another the way I wished Mason's lips would brush against mine. Wait, what in bloody hell am I thinking about?

"Are you okay?" Mason's voice vibrated around my head. I flinched to his direction. He was seated next to me. I hadn't notice his left knee leaning against my right.

"Yeah, why?" I said out of breath.

"You're cheeks are a rosy shade of pink," he said with a soft smile he's never given me. I looked away before I could say anything stupid.

"Listen, I was wondering," Mason said in a low pitched voice. My head slowly made its way to face him. His eyes met mine. I felt the current of electricity begin to spread in between us.

"Maybe, after this," he stopped and took a big unnecessary breath. I didn't think vampires could ever get nervous.

"You," he paused once again.

"Yes," I said under my breath. He sighed.

"You won't need us to baby you once you receive some special medication," he said elusively. My shoulders fell.

"Oh, yeah, that was the deal," I whispered. I felt an awkward silence fall between us all.

"So, Malik," I said trying to break the silence.

"Yeah?"

"Do you have any special ability?" He gave me a lucent smile I've never seen before. It made him even more attractive, even more if he smiled while he played the guitar and sang with his velvet melancholy of a voice.

"I sure do."

"Can I see?" I asked timidly. He turned to look at Mason.

"Don't you dare," Mason warned him. Malik's smile grew even more. I saw Mason grow stiff.

"Mason thinks you're cute," Mason said, or I believed it was Mason.

"Mason?"

"Nope. Malik." He smiled. I gasped. I turned to look at Malik. His body was stiff, standing tall like a robot on off. I turned to face Mason's body.

"How'd you-"

"It's called possession. I have the ability to control and inhabit the body of an individual," he spoke like a scientist.

"Wow." He then did a miraculous gesture. If you can call that. He laughed in amusement.

"Don't tell Mason I told you he thinks you're cute," he said and returned back to his body. Mason began to shake his head.

"I told you not to do it! What did he tell you?" his eyes were in despair, hoping he wasn't humiliated.

"He just explained what he had done to you." I gave him a genuine smile.

"Which was what exactly?" he tried to catch me in a lie.

"Inhabit your body."

"Hhmm," he said as he turned to glare at Malik.

A few minutes later, Edward appeared through the door. His facial expression pronounced bad news. The first thought that went through my head was, _I'm going to die_.

"It's serious," I said to him.

"We need to call dad," he told Mason.

"Why?" I asked; I ruled out the death conclusion. He only stared at Mason and then to Vlad.

"What is it?" Mason said.

"Not here," he said to him.

"We have to go," he finished after he took off his uniform coat. Mason threw me over his back like Vlad had and jumped out the window with everyone else behind him. I kind of hoped Vlad would teleport us.

In five minutes we were back in the living room of his parent's house. The same cozy room in which I found out I had a special attraction with Mason, but unfortunately he had denied it all. It actually even hurt to think about it. It was as if he stabbed my heart with a bending straw, making the death slow and cruel.

"What a surprise," Stan said. He was sitting on a one leather couch chair with his left leg over his right and his arms resting on the arm chair. Alma, Mason's mom, was on the love seat couch with a thick book in her hands.

"What can I help you with?" Stan asked with concern.

"Ask Edward, he won't tell us anything," Mason mumbled. Stan shifted his gaze on to his older son who was sitting on the couch, in which I woke up a few days ago.

"I ran some blood tests on Alexa," he paused. Everyone's eyes were watching him attentively.

"And, for some reason," he stopped again. His eyes shifted on to each one of us.

"And what?" I asked impatiently.

"She's transforming," he said directly to Stan. The atmosphere became stiff, I wasn't able to breath. For a moment I imagined Lexie fainting from the lack of oxygen. Edward's words kept racing in my mind. How could I, Alexandria Hendrix, be turning into a bloodsucker? Not once was I bitten, and if I was, I would have had that dull black and purple hickey on my neck. I would have noticed it off the iron bat. Mason would have noticed it, and he would have been throwing a massive bitch fit about it.

"No, no, no, no, no. That's impossible," I kept saying to myself.

"Indeed it is. You weren't even bitten," Edward said to me.

"I would have seen it," Kayla said.

"But then again, I didn't even see this coming. I only saw her finally agreeing to go see you," she said disappointed.

"She doesn't have the injected venom. She has the natural one," Edward said in wonder.

"What do you mean?"

"You can tell when the venom is injected because it is mixing into the human's blood making it a brighter shade of red. Natural venom is when you already have it in your bloodstream, like if you were a vampire couple's new born baby. Yours wasn't mixing. Yours was expanding," he explained as simple as he could.

"But, why I was able to eat food?"

"At that time, your body was living on the food rather than the blood."

"But, either way wouldn't I have needed blood pumping my heart, or something to stay alive, to feel human?" I was starting to get hysterical.

"Half of your blood was human. It was just slowly starting to like," he paused trying to find a good way to explain himself.

"To like, evaporate letting the natural venom take its place and expand even more." I tried letting the information sink in.

"In that case, that would mean my mother was a vampire and my father human." I tried to putting the puzzle pieces back together.

"Our mother was a hundred percent human," Vlad intervened.

"But, that would mean my father was a," I stopped myself to think it through even more.

"A vampire," Vlad finished.

"No, this isn't possible!" I ran out the door.

"Where are you going?" Mason asked when he got in my way.

"Aunt Maggie," I choked hoping he would understand. He turned to look at Vlad and everybody else.

"We'll go with you," Stan said. I didn't find it in me to tell them they didn't have to.

"Son," he said to Vlad.

"Will you care to do us the favor?" Vlad nodded in comprehension. We all then appeared in Aunt Maggie's office.

Aunt Maggie dropped the cup of coffee she was holding on her right hand. She had the same expression on her face that Edward had when we appeared in his office.

"I want answers now! No! More! Secrets!" I demanded as I hurled over her desk and slammed my fist onto it. She turned to look at Stan.

"What's going on?"

"Edward ran some blood sample tests on Alexa because she had seemed to be getting utterly ill," Stan began to explain. He made his way to one of the chairs before Aunt Maggie and her desk and sat down with patience.

"The results show she is transforming into a full vampire." Aunt Maggie lifted her hands onto her forehead as she brushed back her hair stopping on her neck.

"If you want answers," she gulped.

"You need to go to the Conclave," she said vaguely.

"Why?" Vlad asked her.

Suddenly, the doors burst open and a wave of ice wind embraced us. Xavier was back with the same figures he appeared in last time we had the pleasure of meeting one another.

"Indeed she will," Xavier said when he pulled his hood back. He had his infamous crooked smile spread all over his pale face.

"Xavier."

"Stan."

"Xala." One of the figures behind Xavier pulled back their hood. A pale woman with dirty blonde hair and crystal blue eyes smiled at him.

"Stan."

"Xavier."

"Alma."

"Xala."

"Alma."

"Maggie," Aunt Maggie chimed in. We all turned to look at her.

"How's Vincent?" Stan turned to Xala ignoring Aunt Maggie's self-introduction. Xala took a step toward us.

"He's the reason we're here," she spoke lightly.

"What does he want?" Mason hissed. Stan lifted his right hand at him to control himself.

"He believes it's time for the girl to know," she said. Her eyes slowly made their way to mine.

"He will be expecting you tomorrow," she said to me.

"All of you."

"What time? And where?" Stan asked.

"At the chambers. Twelve noon," she replied.

I turned to look at Vlad. He gave me a half smile and made his way to hug me. This time, I didn't want to let go as I buried my face into his stiff chest.

"How sweet," Xavier spoke. I tilted my head to get a look at him. I then made eye contact with Xala.

"It's time for me to know what?"

"I apologize, but I cannot give any more information that what has been said," she replied in a stern voice.

"What happens if I don't go?"

"I will personally come and get you myself," Xavier purred. Mason growled at him.

"Oh, my apologies. I heard about the attraction you two hold. She's your soul mate, am I right?" he snickered at Mason. Mason growled even louder and took a step forward.

"Son," Stan said abruptly.

"That's none of your business," he hissed at Xavier.

"If I do recall, you, my friend, denied it all. So, why get so incensed?"

Mason hissed one more time.

"I just don't trust you with her." Xavier gave a spiteful laugh.

"Xavier, we didn't come here to fool around," Xala said sternly.

"I expect you, Vincent expects you, to be mature in your position."

"Fine." The members of the conclave made their way out the door led by Xala. Xavier stood before me. He placed his right thumb on my chin, his index finger beneath it followed by his middle finger, his ring finger, and pinky.

"Welcome to the family," he purred and then hustled away.


	14. Chapter 14: The Devil's Child

Chapter 14:

The Devil's Child

My stubborn alarm clock rang at 11:00AM the next day. It was a different day than any other in my whole entire life of existence. Almost sixteen years ago, my life was all a lie. Even my name seems like a lie. I thought I was a vulnerable human being, a human being that only needed to worry about school, jobs, and staying alive. Now, I have to worry about what lies beyond my life, or may I say a soulless life, after I have transformed. I kind of already liked the idea of dying and being buried next to my grandparents, maybe even my mother. Now, I'll never see them again; never rest in paradise with them. There was no more time to think about them. Our clock had run out of hours in a day because our days had run out of months, and our months had run out of years, and our years had run out of calendars. I wonder if Vlad ever felt this way. He, after all, did get to know my mother, our mother. But I guess I shouldn't be so negative about it. Maybe, I'll never get to say hi to my grandparents and my mother, but at least I still have Vlad and Aunt Maggie.

"Can I whack your alarm clock with my bat," Lexie mumbled half asleep.

"I don't know, can you?" Lexie grunted and placed her pillow over her head. I got out of bed and ended her torture. I silently made my way to the shower room to get ready to meet my nightmare.

Once again, the warmth of the water was exhilarating as it massaged my back dripping down to the heel of my feet. I brushed back my nappy, dark ash brown strands with the drops hailing from the faucet. I closed my eyes. I tried to picture myself as a full vampire, but my imagination had run out of ink, out of lines to paint the picture. I slowly opened my eyes and proceeded to shampoo my hair, then condition. Slowly, because I had an eternity, I massaged my repugnant, vibrant skin with coco shear butter body wash. I stood under the pouring blueprint rain to wash down the white fluffed bubbles that were clinging to my lucid skin. I turned the knob before me, and the faucet stopped crying. I stood there again. I attempted to see my future one more time, but all I got was error. I walked out of the shower room hugging my towel around me. I no longer felt the cool air scar my skin.

When I walked into the room, I found a conservative outfit resting on top of my bundle of blankets.

"What is this?"

"It's what you're wearing for the assembly today," Kayla replied from behind me.

"Assembly?"

"That's what we call our important meetings with the Conclave."

"It sounds weird."

"Will you just hurry up and get dressed," Kayla bickered.

"What's the rush? It's barely-"

"11:45AM," Kayla interrupted me.

"What? Already?" I slipped on my underwear beneath my towel, but let my towel fall down when I hustled putting on my bra. I stuck my legs inside a beige, or khaki like color skinny jeggings, I then pulled over me a simple white long sleeve shirt where the sleeves end around my elbows. I wrapped an ashy, light grey wool scarf around my neck overlapping half of my shoulders. And then, my nightmare began. There were light grey, low-top, heel boots waiting for me to slip on.

"You can't be serious?"

"I am. Now, hurry up, it's 11:47. Nope wait, 11:48." I rolled my eyes and slipped on the heels. To my surprise, I was able to walk in them. My theory, vampire ability. I squatted down to get the locket from my drawer that grandpa had given me before Vlad's father killed him. I admired the golden circle outlined with snow crystals on the edges embedded with their initials, _J.B _and _C.B_. A thin outlined heart surrounded them. I opened it. On the left side, there was a picture of them two holding me when I was one year old. Grandpa's eyes were filled with awe and a thick, pink smile lying about on his frail face. Grandma's eyes were filled with sorrow, while her smile tried to cover it up with awe. On the right side was a picture of my mother smiling, she glowed with innocence, but on her lap was a toddler smiling as well. Vlad. I closed the locket it, put it over my head, and I let it hang in between the shirt and scarf.

"You miss them, don't you?" Kayla asked in a gentle voice.

"A lot." I could feel myself tear up. I made my way to sit on the thin desk chair, so that I could do my eye-liner and mascara.

"11:52," Kayla said when I was done.

"Ready," I said unsteadily.

"You sure you can do this?" I nodded and walked out the door before I could change my mind. It was time to know. What? I'm not sure, but I'm definitely sticking around to find out.

We met Vlad outside. Stan was there as well with his arm over Alma's shoulder. Mason wouldn't stop looking at me. Malik was smirking as his eyes drifted from Mason to me.

"Shall we go," I croaked.

Vlad placed his hands on my shoulder.

"I'm here for you, don't ever forget it." I smiled at him and hugged him tight.

"You're riding with me," Mason told me. I nodded and followed him to his black GT Mustang.

"Where is everyone else going to ride?" I asked Mason when the both of us were already in the car.

"Malik is taking his care. Edward, Kayla, and Vlad are going with him. My mom and dad are taking their own car." He ignited his car and sped off, out the school campus, past the hospital, and up into an open field leading to well-groomed trees that were huddled together as if they were telling a secret. Mason sped down in between them, this was our secret.

We stopped in the middle of an opening surrounded by rigid trees hugging one another. We walked down a narrowed path that led to a large cave.

"Don't tell me we're going in there?"

"Don't worry. It leads to a passage door." I hugged his left arm, the same way I did when I was six, and I was hiding behind my grandpa so that the clown at the carnival wouldn't eat me. He led me down in the deep where there was a massive wall made of rock. Mason knocked on it, but not a normal knock. It had some sort of rhythm, a pattern. Then, it automatically slid open. He pulled me in further. There was an elevator before us.

"Going down," Mason joked when we stepped into the elevator.

"Are we almost there?" I asked him when the doors opened again. There was a long corridor that was lit by candle light.

"It's just down there." He pulled me by my hand; there was a light shock than usual. Mason turned to look at me and away when I met his eyes. He led me down the dull corridor until we hit a massive wooden door that must have been ancient. He knocked his synchronized knock and the doors opened wide.

"Awe, Alexandria," I heard a melodic voice vibrate toward us. Before us were three red thrones on a miniature, one step stage. Before the stage were antique red cushioned chairs for all of us. The beige room was wide, lonely. The floor had abstract drawings that filled the room with life. Everyone was seated. Xavier was seated to the left of a pale man with black shoulder length, volume strands of slick hair. His eyes were golden butterscotch. And to his right was Xala.

"Please, take a seat," the pale man said. I proceeded followed by Mason.

"I'm so glad to finally have you here before me," he said. His smooth face smiled and exposed sharp fangs. I lost my breath for a while.

"Who are you?"

"I apologize. I didn't even introduce myself. I'm Vincent. Head of the Conclave," his voice echoed through the walls. He still had his lips outstretched into a smile.

"Do you know why you are here today?"

"They wouldn't tell me."

"Well, I'm going to be telling you an interesting story about a nightmare that has overshadowed our world with the humans. You must pay close attention." His eyes squinted a bit in mystery. I nodded.

"Do you know the story of Judas?"

"I'm not so familiar with it," I said sheepishly.

"Well, the point is Judas betrayed Jesus. Judas felt guilty for what he had done and committed suicide. Because of such an unforgivable act, Satan resurrected him to walk the Earth as a curse. It was to be an 'unholy example' to mankind. Judas soul became Satan's. Angels were cast out of heaven and into hell. Unfortunately, a woman named Lilith climbed out of the core of hell, breeding with Eve's son. When she gave birth, her children killed her and became known as half breeds. Half demon, half human. They began feeding off humans. When God saw what was happening, he sent two indestructible beings to kill them. Unfortunately, the two vampires couldn't kill them fast enough, so he sent the flood. All the half breeds were dead, but the eternal beings were still alive. They began to feed off the dead half breeds, but after a while they ran out. They became crazed. They discovered all the humans and drank their blood. From draining their blood, they killed them. After a while, one of them couldn't take the killing anymore," Vincent paused for a moment. The look in his eyes was distant, cold, yet fragile.

"He decided to search for an alternative. His second option became the animal's blood. It satisfied his hunger, not as much as he wished it did, but it was much more productive. He wished his brother would do the same. He tried it, but it wasn't good enough for him. That was the beginning of the war between vampires and humans. The humans didn't fight though. He fought for them, while the brother fought back to make the world vampire domination. His brother grew an army of vampires. It was too much for him to handle. He swore he wouldn't take a humans life and transform it into just a walking body, but if he wanted to fight back he had no other option. He only turned to those who were dying of sickness. However, before he turned them, he would make them promise him one thing. 'Help me fight my merciless brother for mankind's survival. We will only feed off of animals.'" Vincent recited with emotion being brought to his eyes, but then it washed away.

"The war grew. Innocent people were killed. Vampires drained completely and burned to assure their death. His brother began to get weak after he had succeeded to puncture his skin with iron. A weapon of destruction for vampires. His brother needed a second hand in command. His brother had found a helpless man one day and transformed him. He brainwashed the humble man, made him evil as he was. Unfortunately, for his brother, the humble man had become crazed with anger and power. On a blue moon, the humble man had attacked the brother by striking him with an iron knife to his heart. The brother became too fragile to fight back. He was then set to flames." Vincent closed his eyes as he looked up to the crystal, gold, chandelier hanging serenely in the middle of the ceiling.

"The humble man was no longer humble. Especially, after he had lost the love of his soulless life to a child, a child that was born half breed. We," he gestured to Xavier and Xala.

"Didn't set out to kill the half breed because there was something special in the child. More specifically, because the child's father is utterly powerful. He possesses three special abilities, animal mimicry, telekinesis, and psionic blast. They're very powerful abilities, especially if they're being used for evil. We believe the child will possess powerful abilities to help us fight him off. More importantly, the child will transform and possess these special abilities on the twenty-third of November," Vincent finished saying as his golden eyes relaxed onto my hazel eyes. It then hit me.

"November twenty-third?" I whispered the date to myself.

"That's my birthday!" I exclaimed to Vincent, my body suddenly standing tall.

"Indeed it is," he cooed.

"But-but-but," I couldn't find the words to say.

"Let me add one more thing," Vincent said, turning to Vlad.

"That once humbled man," he paused.

"Is your father," he said to Vlad. Vlad grew stiff. No sign of unnecessary breathing. After a while, he relaxed.

"Thank you Alma," said Vlad. Alma gestured a slow nod.

"Why, didn't my father say anything to me?"

"He became too busy plotting war. He became even more crazed when he found out your mother had the child. He knew what was of the love of his life. You know what happens when a vampire loses his soul mate."

"They look for vengeance, and they won't stop until they have succeeded." Vlad's eyes drifted into the distant as he tried to put the pieces together. I, on the other hand, didn't want to know the truth anymore.

"Do you know now what you need to know?" Vincent asked me. I sat myself back down on the edge of the fabric chair.

"I don't think I want to know," I whispered.

"But you do know." I shook my head repeatedly in my hands. I felt my throat tie itself into a knot, and I tried to fight back the tears.

"Say it," Vincent said. I shook my head.

"Say it," Vincent's voice became louder. I sat still, looking down at the heels that I never would have found myself dead in.

"Say it!"

"Vincent that's enough!" Mason sneered.

"Say it!"

"Vincent!" Mason and Stan hissed. I began to tremble in my seat.

"Say, it!"

"No!" I screeched. My body was still trembling. I began to rock myself back and forth.

"Say! It!" Vincent pushed.

"Stop it!" I rushed to face him face-to-face. My teeth gritted. My jaw clenched. My eyes cried.

"You're his child," Vincent said calmly. My body lost its senses. I then began to walk backwards, away from his words, away from the truth. My knees landed on the marbled floor, my body limp. I then, felt a sudden urge of electricity pump my un-beating heart. I didn't mind though, I let my body fall into his arms.

"Alexa," Mason whispered in soft harmony. I let my sobs break loose.

"No. No. No. No! No! No!" I said between sobs.

"Shhhh," he comforted me.

"Why didn't you tell me he was my father!" I rushed to Vlad's side and began to beat on him, no desire of stopping.

"Alexa! Alexa!" he said trying to stop me. He got a hold of my arms, and I began to fight against him.

"Why?" I yelled in his face, mascara frying my eyes.

"I'm sorry," he whispered. I saw a tear escape his right eye.

"I thought you had enough trouble with finding out about what happened to our mother," he said exasperated.

"The last thing I wanted to do was hurt you this way. I didn't know it was this bad," he said between tears. The look in his eyes was sincere. Being angry at him wasn't going to make the pain any less severe. After all, I loved him; he filled the wound in my bloodless heart. He also had just gotten unbearable news about his, our, father. So, I did what I could do best at the moment, and that was cry with him, holding him close to me, afraid of him being part of the nightmare I wanted to wake up from, soon.

I turned to glare at Vincent.

"So, I'm the child who you believe will be able to help you?"

"We believe and hope so," he said sternly.

"Do you know he's out to kill me?"

"We are aware of it. But we will help you train to fight him off when the moment comes," he had a look of hope in his transparent, butterscotch eyes.

"That brother," he said when I hadn't responded to him.

"Was my brother," he sighed, and took his seat on his throne.

"I need you," His golden eyes showed despair. I looked away.

"This is too much for me. How can you be so sure I will be able to help?"

"We will find out after your sixteenth birthday." I turned to look at everyone else who was seated, almost unconscious. I turned to look at Mason. His eyes had the heartwarming look of awe. The look that shot an arrow through my decreased pumped heart. My eyes made the clouds jealous. I hadn't noticed Mason in front of me. His arms extending, slowly, toward my cool body. I waited for him to embrace me, to reassure me he would be there, most importantly, to say he cared about me. There we were, his body wrapped around my petite figure. I buried my face in his neck. He stroked my curls gently.

"You can do it," he spoke in my ear.

"I believe in you." My tears drenched the collar of his black shirt. I wanted to remain this way forever, and I had the chance to do so. If only he felt the same way.

"Alexandria, we need to know," Vincent interrupted.

"Can I please just think about it?" I pleaded not looking at him. He sighed.

"It's better than no." I made my way out the wooden door, up to the cave, and out into the real world that awaited me. Inhale. Exhale.

"Do you want to go back to the school?" Mason asked. I shook my head.

"What do you want to do?" I walked up to him, to feel his body next to mine, to feel the current bring my heart back to live, to feel his love.

"Can't we just stay like this for a while?" I whispered. He nodded lightly.

"Of course we can." He pulled me in closer.

"Will you be alright?"

"I don't know. It's not every day that you find out you're the devil's child."


	15. Chapter 15: Birthday Girl

Chapter 15

Birthday Girl

_Heart beats slowly. Blood drenches the veins. Boom-boom. Boom-boom. Boom. Stop. Crystal, lucid eyes open wide, throat parched, saliva vaporized. A puddle of sticks is murdered by a merciless shoe. Crack. Crack. Crack. Stop. He has arrived._

"_My beautiful creation," his voice vibrated through the rigid trees standing between us._

"_I've been looking everywhere for you. Where have you been hiding all these years?" his smile became elastic, his fangs peeking in the horizon._

"_You look a lot like your mother," he said disappointed._

"_What a shame you have to go, leave like your mother did. However, I'll do it differently than what you did to her. You will feel the wrath cremate you alive. You will run around helplessly, struggle the way roaches do when they're trying to get up from their backs. You will scream until you no longer have air in your lungs to push any further. You will gently lie on the weeds, set fire to the world you once knew, burning all you have ever known, felt, heard, sensed, and touched!" he began to pace back and forth in a swift dance, barely stepping on the grass that was once green, now yellow._

"_Any last words before we begin?"_

_I stood tall, head held high, the way he would have been proud of me if he had accepted me as his child._

"_Go to hell," I sneered._

"_Very well, I will meet you there." He launched himself at a full speed, wrapping himself around my petite body as we fell back together, and I kicked him off of me, sending him flying, landing on his back. A miniature earthquake had set._

_I stood up quick and ran through the thick trees that were standing in my way. It seemed as if they were his minions. I, too, began to kill the sticks that lay helplessly on the weeds. Crack. Crack. Crack. No stop. _

"_Is that all you can do run like a coward?" he yelled from behind me._

"_A child of mine would never run! They will face a fight!"_

_I pressed my heels onto the dirt. Stop. My back was still to him._

"_You should never give your back to the predator," he hissed._

"_You'd be dead within five seconds."_

"_Then why haven't you killed me, father?" I sneered to his incompetence. _

"_I'm making the game more exhilarating. It's no fun to just go straight for the kill. I like to taunt my prey."_

"_Didn't your mother ever teach you not to play with your food?"_

"_You keep my mother out of this!" he got a hold of my neck as he lifted me up into the air. My legs were dangling, kicking about, my small hands trying to untangle his hands around my neck. But I then remembered. I don't need to breathe. I'm a vampire now. I dug my nails into his hands and scraped them down to his wrists. He let my body fall._

"_You should have kept my grandparents out of this as well," I sneered._

"_Then why don't you seek your vengeance?"_

"_I wait until my prey comes to me." His jaw clenched. He then threw me straight into a tree trunk, without even putting an inch of a fingertip on me. My body lay down by the roots of the tree. He was too strong for me. I hadn't even studied on how to kill a vampire. He made his way towards me. My head was stuck between the roots, and his massive combat boots._

"_Looks like you should have prepared a plan," he snickered. The combat boot rose a few inches above my head, ready to smash my skull onto the branches that would die with me. I waited for him to make his final move, but it never came. I opened my blazing hazel eyes to see what was wrong. My father was lying on top of the weeds._

"_Stay away from her," the voice sneered. Vlad._

"_Son, what are you doing? She killed your mother!" he said while crunched over, holding on to his side._

"_My mother knew what would happen if she had her. After all, you were the one who put her in there! It's not Alexa's fault."_

"_Are you insinuating it's mine?"_

"_Not only you, but my mother's as well." Vlad was sent flying into a tree, but he recovered quick._

"_Don't you dare insult your mother!"_

"_I'm not insulting her. I loved her. I'm just speaking the truth." Vlad teleported behind him and began to try to rip his head off. Our father elbowed him on the stomach and flipped him over. I tried telling my body to get up and fight, but it wouldn't listen. I began to crawl with my elbows. Suddenly, a tree flew over me and into Vlad._

"_You're a dreadful father!" My voice echoed. His head slowly flinched my way._

"_Leave Vlad alone," I pleaded. I was then lifted into the air, then back down when Vlad knocked him with a heavy branch._

"_I don't want to hurt you son," Our father warned._

"_I don't want to kill you father, but you have caused enough damage."_

"_It doesn't have to be this way," our father said when he began to take slow hesitant steps towards Vlad._

"_Then let her go." Our father stood before Vlad, hands behind his back._

"_That wouldn't be fair to your mother."_

"_How many times do we have to tell you that she knew what was going to happen to her if she had the child. My mother wanted to give Alexa life, even if it meant losing hers." Vlad bickered. Our father's eyes became narrow._

"_Forgive me son, for I have sinned," he said in a monotone. Suddenly, Vlad fell down to his knees. Then, his body fell to the side. A knife punctured his heart. An iron knife._

"_No!" My voice screeched out into the wilderness. My tears were soon to become a river. My cries were to be the hum of the birds. Then, a lightning was to become my energy. And so it did. I was up on my feet. My hands clenched into fists, teeth gritted, and jaw clenched as I ran to him, jumped into the air, and my combat boots made contact with his round head. I pulled the knife out of Vlad's chest and strutted over to my father's limping body. My father yelled, hoping it would seize me, but I was too angry to stop there._

"_You killed my grandparents and now my brother," I muttered, trying to untie the knot in my throat to hold back dry tears._

"_It's your turn to feel my wrath," I said between clenched teeth._

"_I guess we both will," he muffled. I then stroke him with the iron knife. I saw his dark grey eyes bulge out, and so did mine. I followed his eyes to wear he had his hand around an iron knife that went through my lucent chest._

"_I'll see you in hell," he muffled._

"No!" I screeched as I sat up.

"Alexa!" Lexie had her iron bat in her right hand while her left lay on my shoulder.

"Where's Vlad?" I began to yell and shake her repeatedly.

"Alexa!"

"Where's Vlad?" I screeched. My window then was slid open and a pair of arms embraced me.

"Vlad?" I asked while I pulled him in close.

"I'm here. It's okay." He tried to hush me.

"No it's not," I choked.

"What happened?"

"He killed you," I said while my hands caressed his face to make sure it still wasn't a nightmare.

"Who?"

"Our father," I croaked. His eyes kept my gaze as he tried to process what I had just said.

"It was just a dream," he finally said. I pulled him into me just to make sure.

"Look, I'll stay here all night while you sleep, so you don't have to worry about me disappearing." I nodded, rushing the tears that stroke my chin to fall on the softened mountain on my blanket.

"Alright," he said as I settled myself under the covers and his hand massaged the bottom of my head to help me fall asleep. Little by little, drowsiness by drowsiness, I fell deep into sleep, and I only dreamt about the last few days with my grandparents.

The next morning, Vlad shook me awake. My eyelashes fluttered open, disturbing my eye sight.

"Get up beautiful," his voice sang. I smiled to the thought of him actually keeping his word on staying by my side all night. I sat up and put my arms around his neck as I whispered a thank you in his ear.

"What's family for?" was his response. I got ready quicker than usual, the venom was expanding in its place even more. This, only worried me.

"How do you feel about your birthday being tomorrow?" Lexie had asked when we began to walk to school. I didn't want to ride in the car with her and the bloodsucking lovers, I especially didn't feel like riding in the car with Mason alone. Ever since the day after the assembly, it's been awkward between us. We would glance at each other, then look away because I know we both felt the current of electricity expand between us in a spherical shape.

"Afraid."

"I've always wanted to turn into a vampire," she said.

"So you can be with Malik?"

"Yeah, but then I think about my family and having to leave them or make them think I was dead. I wouldn't want to say good-bye in that sense." I nodded my head a bit to let her know I grasped what she was talking about.

"Why are you afraid?" Lexie asked five minutes later.

"Because I have responsibilities that come with it. My death takes a bigger part in it," I sighed.

"I wish I understood," she shrugged.

"I wish you didn't wish that. I'd prefer your mind be sane from what can happen after tomorrow."

"Thanks for looking out," she snickered. I gave her a light elastic smile.

"What's going on between you and Mason?" I had lost my voice.

"What do you mean?"

"You two have been acting strange."

"How so?"

"Well, for starters, Mason hasn't gotten mad lately," she said sheepishly.

"What does Mason's temper have to do with me?" I asked offended.

"You're the cause."

"What?" I stopped in my tracks to get a look at her.

"What?'

"You can't blame me for his attitude problem!" I shrieked.

"Listen," she said as she pushed me by my shoulder to continue walking.

"Whenever you do something stupid, for example, the whole Stephen situation, you make him lose his mind." She squealed.

"Whenever you question him, he gets angry because he feels weak around you."

"So, the effect is him caring for me in an aggressive way?"

"He uses his aggressiveness to keep you from seeing that he cares." I took it in consideration as his excuse to the way he tends to treat me.

"So, that day at his parent's house; when we found out we had this eerie attraction to one another, he denied it all because he knows that there may be something there."

"In my opinion, yes. I mean, don't you remember what Malik said to you?" My mind drifted back into the day Malik had shown me his special ability. _Mason thinks you're cute_.

"Well, how do you know Malik wasn't just joking around?" I said trying to hide the pleasure of knowing Mason thought I was cute.

"Alexa, it's Malik we're talking about." She had a point there.

"Well, whatever it is, I hope he finds a better way to cope with his anger problems."

We continued to walk on the curb of the narrow roads, listening to the birds chirp in the cool air. Mason's face kept appearing in my head. I tried to imagine an iron train rushing into him, his body rolling along the tracks with every step the wheels took. That made it easier to shake away the feeling of lust increase in my soon-to-be-paralyzed cardiac tissue. Unfortunately, it was overshadowed by his irresistible posture against his pitch night mustang. At this moment, I began to wonder whether vampires were capable of fainting.

"Early once again. Are we making it a habit," Mason teased.

"Will you drop it already. Your teasing is getting old, considering the fact that you don't age," she said as she tried mocking his stance.

"What's wrong with you Mason?" she began to push.

"You seem to be losing your streak in making people's life a living hell with your comments," she paused to look at him.

"Could it be that you're becoming soft?" she was trying to get him to confess a secret.

"Hhhmm, could be possible," he said vaguely. My ears perked up. Was Mason really becoming sentimental?

"Could it have to do with something, _someone_?"

"What are you trying to get at?" He folded his arms before his chest.

"Yeah, Lexie, what are you trying to get at?" I mimicked.

"I wish you could tell me," she mimicked back. Mason turned his gaze onto me since the longest. My posture stood stiff. I began to feel it; the electric current escape from the warmth of my body, mixing into his own, yet he still didn't look away like he would. It was my turn to look away, and so I did.

"You're birthday is tomorrow," he said abruptly. My eyes betrayed me as they made their way to him.

"Yeah," I whispered, looking away.

"How do you feel?" his voice was caring, melodic.

"Afraid."

"I wish it wouldn't happen to you," he whispered. At the moment, the world revolved around me and him.

"Why?"

"You will change," he said simply, burrowing his blazing turquoise eyes into my somber hazel eyes.

"Physically, but not personality wise."

"I beg to differ."

"I beg to differ to your beg to differ." _Idiot. _He finally gave me a warm smile.

"I guess we'll find out tomorrow." His eyes became narrow, sadness, wordiness hidden behind them.

"Why?" his eyes met mine once again.

"Why what?"

Why do you worry what's going to happen to me?" he cleared his throat drastically.

"You're like family."

"Like a sister, like a niece, like a cousin, like a lover," I whispered as low as I could the last word. He flinched a bit.

"Maybe." I sighed to failing to read him.

"I think as lovers," Lexie said in her high pitched human voice. Mason and I jumped to the sudden realization that she was still there.

"Ah! Who's ready to party tomorrow? I have the whole gym reserved and decorated like a winter theme. I have your dress picked out, and the music will be off the roof-"

"Whoa! Kayla, when was this all planned?"

"Yesterday, a week because I saw it happening," she muttered.

"Look Kayla, I appreciate all the time and effort you put into this, but-"

"But what?" she said exasperated.

"I don't want to risk putting anyone in danger. And quite frankly, I'm not looking forward to tomorrow." My eyes fell to the ground.

"Alexa, what time were you born?" her voice was firm.

"Exactly 11:30 PM."

"The party will end at around or before that time," she tried to convince me.

"The change won't happen until the clock strikes 11:30. Look at it this way. It will be the last time you can enjoy to feel human, be human, because after the change, things will never be the same." I gulped.

"Kayla, she's already scared as it is. Don't push it," Vlad intervened.

"I just want you to enjoy your freedom one last time because after tomorrow you will fight a war that's been going on for centuries now. You will have to face your worst bloodline nightmare." For some reason, I turned to look at Mason one more time. His eyes were distant, dull.

"Alright," I sighed, eyes still fixed on him. Kayla squealed. The dreadful vibration of a high pitched key note from a piano rang in the air. Everyone made their way to their classes. Mason and I kept our ground.

"Do you want to escape for a while?" Mason asked me.

"Will you be my knight and shining armor?"

"One last time," he responded.

"Before I become the most wanted birthday girl," I added. His arm wrapped itself around my shoulders as we walked away from the world.


	16. Chapter 16: Bloody Sixteen

**Hey guys, the story may not be as bloody as the title says because I quite frankly didn't want to write about blood, but I did the best I could to make it interesting, especially since it's my longest chapter yet, so enjoy, and i will try to update soon, even though I'm beginning to get a writer's block, but I won't let you down :D 3 !**

**Enjoy**

* * *

Chapter 16:

Bloody Sixteen

The sun set behind the dull clouds that was drenched with tears. They must know this will be the last day I will ever breathe because it was a rule of survival. It was the last day I would eat because my organs no longer will crave the sizzling nutrients I had to offer. It was the end of my human existence, but I wouldn't rest my body under fair soil beside my grandparent's and even my mother's tomb. I never imagined myself hungry for death, a normal death that may not come for centuries that will.

Maybe, it won't be as dreadful as I'm letting the eye see.

_Yes it will._

Maybe, I will conquer the battle I'm supposed to fight.

_No you won't._

Maybe, this is all just a simple mistake, a joke that will not bring joy to my pathetic life.

_Yes it is._

Sigh.

What am I supposed to do now? Should I be as excited as Kayla and Lexie are? Why are they excited? It will still be me, just a more enhanced me, physically. Why would anybody want this life? Is Vlad happy to know that I will be one of him? Does my Aunt Maggie even know about this? Ugh! Why am I stressing so much? There's no turning back. I had no choice-this is what life has to offer to me, but why this?

I threw myself on top of the thin bed that was standing tall beneath my excessive weight that is invisible to the eye, but you can feel it. Apparently, there was no school today due to the fact of my situation. The humans didn't know why, but it's not like if they cared anyhow. It was a free day, why fight it? But the vampires, they knew what was going on. They seemed just as happy as usual, no remorse to the shiny, new, addition. Except one, of course, Mason.

I saw it in his crystal eyes. That look of awe was back and it was planning to stay for quite a while. I wish I could have told him it was all going to be okay, but I wasn't even aware of the conditions I would be in after. I wish I could have told him that I dreaded the idea of me becoming a bloodcurdling blood sucker, but I knew that was just the human side of me that felt that way. The vampire side of me that had increased within me desired the change. Not just the change, but the fact that it would spent an eternity beside Mason because the connection heaved around us. The selfish side of me was becoming stronger, while the considerate side of me was dying, evaporating into the humid air that lingered around for this day.

What will become of us? Two souls, lost in a treacherous land field, hidden from paradise. A kinship forced to enjoy one's lonely company. Two hearts that once beat as one, are now dying as one. Is it even right to call him my soul mate? Does he feel the passion slur itself within the velvet blood that electrifies the heart to pump at least a second for us to be alive? If only the outrageousness would set itself on someone else. What will become of us? What will become of me?

Lexie's new addition of alarm clocks in her closet collection vibrated against the winter beige walls. Her iron bat made contact with it just like the rest of them. Will I be a broken clock like the rest that roam the silent hills?

"I knew I should have not left the alarm on. Now, I can't go back to sleep," Lexie muttered against her moist, white feathered, pillow.

"At least you can sleep," I muttered.

"I wish I were becoming a vampire so I wouldn't have to deal with the pain of having to wake up at six of the morning," she shot back as she sat herself up, her waist and down wrapped by her brown and light turquoise zebra print blanket.

"It's like having a thousand needles poking at your back," she said half asleep.

"Hhmm, I'd rather have needles poking at me rather than fangs poking between my lips."

"Will you ever see a brighter side to this?"

"Is there greener grass on the other side?"

"There could be," she shrugged. I chuckled to her lack of making me feel better.

"You know I love you right?" I said as I threw myself on top of her. She laughed a bit.

"I know. I love you too," she giggled.

I laid myself between the cool wall and Lexie's warm body. I could hear a faint sound of her heart beating, her blood rushing around her veins, her calm breathing. I was jealous.

"How do you feel now that it's your birthday?" She asked me while she rested her body to her side to face me, her back to her desk, closet, and door.

"Worried, sad," I whispered.

"Why worried?" I let out a small sigh.

"Worried that I won't be what everyone expects me to be. Worried I might not win the fight."

"Why sad?"

"I'm burying the human me, the human Mason and I wish I could be."

"Mason?" Her head flinched back.

"I don't even know how to respond to that," I confessed.

"All I know is that he's not happy with what's going to happen to me after 11:30PM."

"If you ask me, I believe there is an _immense_ attraction between the two of you that he can't seem to handle." Lexie's eyes began to exam the zebra print on her blanket.

"What are you, some sort of love Guru?" I teased. She giggled a bit.

"I'm being serious."

"I wish your predictions were true." Her green eyes came to life.

"You fell for him! I knew it!" she chirped. I hushed her.

"Do you want Mason to hear you?" I whispered.

"Oh come on, it should be about time that you and him get together." Suddenly her elastic smile faded.

"Why don't you look so sure about yourself now love Guru?" I raised my left eyebrow.

"Mason's the problem," she said loosely.

"Tell me something I don't know," I said sarcastically, but she must have not have heard it.

"He must still be glum from what happened with-" her voice became faint. I tried perking up my ears.

"From what?"

"You know I can't tell you that information," she said guiltily.

"I won't push." I honestly had no energy to push.

"How is my most beautiful, adorable, petite sister that anyone would ask for?" Vlad boomed through the door, Kayla behind him. His eyes grew wide.

"Um, is there something you have to tell me Alexa, and you Lexie? Should I call Malik?" he said bemused as his fingers pointed to the door. I had forgotten my leg was still overlapping Lexie's thigh, and my hand fell slightly below her stomach. Lexie and I looked at each other. We then both sat up in a swift motion.

"It's not what it looks like?" Lexie and I exclaimed in unison, our hands in the air.

"Did you two sleep together last night?" Kayla asked in shock and in pain for not telling her about what wasn't happening between me and Lexie.

"We're straight," we both exclaimed.

"I just threw myself over Lexie this morning to bug her and wake her up," I said.

"We were just having some girl talk to pass the time," Lexie added.

"Uh-huh," Vlad and Kayla said. We all had our eyes fixed onto each other for a spilt five seconds.

"Any who," Vlad mused.

"How's the birthday girl feeling?" My stomach tied itself into a knot.

"Not so good after hearing birthday girl." My head fell onto Lexie's dry, fluffed, pillow, the palm of my left hand lying against my forehead.

"Come on, cheer up. I promise when the party begins you will live like you're dying," she said weakly. I raised my left eyebrow at her.

"You seriously did not just say that." It took her a while to process what she had said. She gasped when she figured it out.

"You're not really dying," she tried to make me feel better. I let myself sink into the mattress.

"How about you go distract yourself while we get everything ready," Vlad said.

"I think I'll just end up walking around like a zombie and end up in a mental institution because a silly peasant was worried I would become a danger to our society," I mumbled.

"Did you seriously just say peasant?" Vlad asked.

"Not the point."

"Try doing something productive please. I don't want to find you sitting in your room like if you were a prisoner in a cave worried some monster will come and get you if you put a foot outside of it."

"Thanks for the cheering up," I said sarcastically.

"Either way, wherever I end up, I will become the monster."

"I find that offensively," him and Kayla said in unison.

"Sorry."

"Just get dressed up and go distract yourself. We'll see you at 7:00Pm Sharp." Vlad and Kayla made their way out the door. Then, Lexie did as well.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm gonna go help them." She pointed at the open door.

"In Your Paul Frank Pajama pants, a white spaghetti strap shirt, and uggs?"

"Mhmm. I look cute in anything," she said as she disappeared as well.

I had no energy to get dressed, so I just slipped on my uggs as well while I wore my Hello Kitty Pajama pants, a white spaghetti shirt as well, and a white thin sweater. I only applied mascara and sat down on my unmade bed, contemplating where I should go. For some reason, I was taking a chance on going to Mason's dorm. I decided to test my speed, see how fast I would be able to go now. No doubt, it was faster than I, or any human, could get used to. Subconsciously, I made it to Mason's dorm. I could already feel the energy arise as soon as I stepped into the hallway. I knew he felt it too because before my knuckles hit the door, he appeared before me, shirtless, minty fresh embracing him.

"Umm, hey, is this a bad time?" I asked with a slight hint of shyness.

"Umm, no, not all," he said as he stepped aside. I hesitantly made my way to the foot of his massive bed.

"So, do vampires sleep?"

"They don't have to." He walked over to sit on the edge of the bed.

"What brings you to my dungeon?"

"Vlad kept insisting I distract myself while they do the preparations for the party."

"I'm your distraction?" I saw a small elastic grin spread above his oval chin. I nodded.

"Well, shouldn't I feel special," he said sarcastically, but it was a friendly one. I gave him a weak smile.

"What's wrong?" His eyes became narrowed.

"May I?" I asked, pointing at the empty space on his bed beside him. He nodded, and I slowly sat. I let out a sigh, trying to think of what to say to him.

"I don't think this is how you want to distract yourself?" he turned to look at me. His eyes were beginning to hide the awe he's been having. My eyes kept chasing after them. They then made their way down to his full pink lips. I saw the smoothened wrinkles lay against his skin. How jealous was I? They got to feel the tenderness behind them, the light scent of sugar coated gummy bears. I wanted to taste them, I wanted him, no point in hiding it anymore. The attraction was already there. The attraction was becoming immense by the second my venom placed itself. I would fight it if I wanted to, but did I? He sure did. My eyes looked at away at the simple color of teal that would cling to his body whenever he did decide to sleep.

"Will you tell me what's wrong?" I could have told him I was afraid, worried, of what might become of me and the rest of the world after I transformed, but he knew that. So, what was left to say? Ask him why he pushed me away, only to pull me back into him like a rubber band?

_Yes._

Please don't start again.

_Why not?_

I feel crazy.

_Why? I'm only your conscious._

I shouldn't be talking to you, just listening.

_Then don't talk to me. Listen to me and talk to him._

But-

_But what?_

How?

_Ask him why?_

Why what?

_You know what you want to know._

Alright. Sigh.

"Mason," I began.

"Hhhmm," he responded, not taking his gloomy eyes away from me.

"Why?" He gave me a puzzled look.

"Why what?"

"Why do you push me away?"

"I don't push you away."

"Yes you do." My eyes became blue. He noticed and looked away. It was one thing for his to be full of despair and another for mine to be hurt. He didn't have to look at his. He had to look at mine.

"I'm just guarded," he simply said.

"But you know there's something there," I pushed.

"No there isn't." I wasn't going to be able to get him to say it this way. There was only one way I could throw him off the edge of his seat.

"Forget it. I'll find my distraction with Stephen," I said and stood up from his bed. Before my foot took a step, he pulled on my hand to stop me.

"I don't want you near him," he hissed.

"You know what Mason? I'm sick of it. I'm sick of this," I said gesturing to me and him.

"I'm sick of your mood swings and everything else that's just impossible to turn the other cheek to about you!"

"What is it that you want from me?" he raised his melodic voice.

"Tell me what you really feel," I said desperately.

"Feel about what?" his voice loud.

"Are you serious?" my voice began to rise. He pulled away from me.

"What do you want me to say?"

"Admit that what we both feel this attraction," I whispered. He turned to look at me. I found the look of awe in his eyes.

"Why is it so important to you?"

"Because I want to feel that I can be loved," the words slipped through my thin lips. He sighed.

"Alexa, we all love-"

"You know that's not what I meant," I said sternly.

"Do you really want me to stand here and lie to you?" My eyes flinched to look at him in disbelief.

"Lie? You have been lying to me! Maybe, you even have been lying to yourself!" I spat.

"Alexa, I know how I feel about you and that is not what the 'attraction' spells." I took a step back. The energy sphere was growing, but I didn't know if it was growing because of the attraction or because we were becoming mad.

"Then why do you get so angry when I'm with Stephen or even mention being with him?" I shrieked.

"Because I care as a friend! I don't want to see you get hurt, as a friend."

"Bullshit!"

"Ugh!" he threw his hands in the air and slapped his thigh.

"How do you want me to prove it to you that I don't feel that way?" he boomed.

"I don't know!" I became restless.

"God, Alexa!" his hands were pulling at his sleek pitched black hair.

"God, Mason!" Unfortunately, a tear escaped my left eye. He caught it.

"Why do you keep insisting?" he was now restless.

"Why do you keep denying it?"

"I-" he had nothing left to say but begin to curse at the air. I began to curse as well. I screamed, he screamed. Words slurred, hands flew, and tears ran. It wasn't until Mason and I began to yell at each other, our faces closing the gap between us, the electrical sphere wrapping itself around us, pulling us even closer with desired intent. Then, it was just me screaming.

"I hate you! I hate what you do to me! I hate you!" I began to slap him on his shoulders uncontrollably. He caught my arms as I began to fidget and scream some more.

"I hate feeling this way! I hate-I hate-I hate-" My screams were cut off by a warm, lightning touch that made my knees become weak and fall into a cool stone. The adrenaline struck me as my lips began to move into his. Warmth, that's what I felt. I thought sooner or later we were both going to catch on fire. His massive hands pulled me closer to him by my cheeks. His lips were desperate to trace my own, discover what really lay behind the horizon. He must have been trying to prove to himself that he didn't feel what I felt, but his lips betrayed him. I felt his need to want me, to make me his. I wasn't going to object, in fact, my lips betrayed me as well.

Stroke after stroke, our muscles relaxed and the kiss became gentle, almost like if they were just magnets that stuck together, no sudden movement. It wasn't until _I _pulled away. We stood there, eyes locked to our swollen lips, forehead to forehead, nose to nose, and soon, once again, lips to lips. A softer kiss this time, a hum that blended with one another. My heart was pumping the venom, if that were still possible. Our touch exalting. I had hoped the intensity of the electric shock between us wouldn't make me face unconsciousness once again, not this time, this was our time. Unfortunately, this time, he pulled away, and we stood still once again, admiring one another. He then closed his eyes.

"What do you have to say for yourself now?" I whispered. He pressed against my forehead with his, eyes gone.

"I didn't want it to happen like this," he whispered.

"How did you want it to happen?"

"Definitely not beginning it with a fight," he said with shame.

"All I want to know, is if you feel the same way?" his forehead rubbed against mine as he nodded, his eyes looking down.

"Why did you deny it?"

"I just didn't want to repeat history, but I guess history likes to repeat me."

"What happened to you to make you feel so cold, distant?"

"That's a story I wish not to tell you." My eyes tried to look into his.

"At least, not right now," he whispered.

"I respect that." My hand stroke his cheek. I lay my head against his bare chest, he pulled me into him.

For the rest of the evening, Mason and I hung out in his room, listened to music, played dominos, and had a conversation that hadn't aroused fury into one of us. I didn't want to leave his side, especially not when the clock stroke six. The time was getting closer, anticipating my torture. I left Mason so that I could get ready, I didn't want to be late. Well, the vampire me didn't want to be late, but the human me had no problem making _them_ wait.

I walked into the abandoned room that still had two twin beds uncared for. I then found a gorgeous gown clinging onto a cushion mannequin. It was a mixture of soft, golden champagne, orange garnet, strapless, seems tracing almost flower abstracts with fake diamonds on the middle of the upper body. It went from tight to a round, puffy, ruffled gown. It was beautiful with its matching masquerade mask. Kayla went all out. The vampire side of me was ecstatic, while the human me was beginning to give in. I ambushed the ball gown and put it on. I'm not the type to be cocky, but this night was going to be all about me.

"Ahhhh! You look beautiful in it!" Kayla and Lexie yelled in unison. I could feel the human me blush a rosy shade of pink.

"It's time to do your hair," Lexie chimed. She had put a pile of hair to the left side of my head while it fell in loose curls. The pieces of strands left on my right side were wrapped and pinned a hundred-eighty degrees over the hair that fell on my back. Kayla did an intense cat eye-liner shape on my eye lids and a light pat of necessary blush because of my lucent skin tone. I was a princess, and she couldn't wait to see her prince. I stepped into some simple golden champagne heels.

"Let's go we're ten minutes late," Kayla shooed. We went running downstairs, through foggy, narrowed, abandoned streets, and in to an empty building.

"Surprise!" A mass of humans and vampires yelled with glee in unison. My mouth fell open, wide hazel eyes hiding behind the mask. The place was astounding, candle light tables, Purple dim lights, round tables, a DJ on a miniature stage, and a marbled dance floor, like in the renaissance day, except for the DJ part-you know.

"What made you choose a masquerade theme?" I asked Kayla In between the volcanic music.

"Hello, renaissance time, when vampires were becoming known," she said baffled. I kept admiring the live room.

"May I have this dance?" A melodic voice blended with the music, but it wasn't his voice.

"Umm, sure," I said hesitantly. I turned to find myself before an almost replica of the phantom of the opera.

"May I say you look splendid, my dear," he chirped.

"I wish I can say the same for you." He chuckled.

"I must say I'm coming to like the venom that breeds within you."

"Enjoy it while you can," I spit. I managed another chuckle from him.

"I'm sure I'll be enjoying it for quite some time." At that point I wished my prince would have come to save me, or that the DJ played a more moveable sound.

"I'm sorry, I'm still trying to get used to the heels and quite frankly my feet have become tired. I'm gonna go sit down now," I said as I pulled away toward the punch table.

"I will make you company." Great.

An hour had passed and Stephen was still blabbing about being a vampire. I was busy searching the room for my prince, or at least someone less annoying and cocky than Stephen. Another hour had passed and I was stuffing myself with some chocolate covered strawberries that quite frankly weren't as good and sweet as movies made them turn out to be. Either way, my body had excluded food from its diet. I then made my way to the DJ booth to just become a burden because I had nothing better to do, yet another hour passed and no prince, no Romeo. I was beginning to think I was going to die alone. Half an hour passed and Kayla and Lexie pulled me out to dance. I enjoyed myself, laughed, smiled, didn't sweat, but was becoming anxious because no prince had come strutting on his horse.

Maybe the horse got tired on the way here.

_ No it didn't, and there's probably no horse._

Not now!

_He'll come._

Sigh.

The DJ decided to play Mississippi, by Train. Gentlemen began to ask their fair ladies to have this dance. I hoped Stephen didn't attain the same idea.

"May I have this dance madam?" It was his melancholic voice, my prince's voice. I turned to face him. He wore a simple black suit with a white shirt that had the ruffled collar hanging in the middle alike the olden days, he wore a simple golden mask as well.

"I'd be delighted to." He pulled me by the waist as we began to step to the right where our feet would meet and to the left where they would meet once again. Then, we'd do the same in a backwards and forward motion.

"Where have you been?"

"My apologies, I had a fight with myself."

"About?"

"About whether it was right to come and celebrate your day of turning, whether I should be happy that we could spend an eternity together, or if I should be afraid of losing you."

"I'm glad you took the risk."

"I'm glad as well." I saw his elastic smile come close to mine and both enchanted themselves in a blissful kiss.

Pinch me, I must be dreaming.

_I would, if I had hands._

Than just let me know it's not a dream.

_It's not a dream._

Jason Mraz's song, _I won't give up_, began to fade in. The moment was perfect, an enchanted love story. I wasn't going to let it go, I didn't want to, not even the human me. That was until, there was no human me. My body fell into Mason's arms.

"Alexa," his voice became unsettled.

"Alexa." My skin became heat.

"11:30," Mason said in despair. He lifted me up bridal style as he began to call for Vlad. He rushed to a safe clear, away from the humans and the vampires enjoying their night that brought no change to their life.

"Ahhh!" I yelped. The heat became intense, I could feel my stomach, liver, all the organs the human me needed begin to explode, at least it felt that way. My fingers had dug into Mason's costume as I had bitten my lower lip.

"Hold on Alexa, be strong," Mason quivered.

"It'll be over soon." He stroke my left blazing cheek.

"Alexa!" I heard Aunt Maggie's voice.

"Don't fight it," I heard Stan's voice.

"Ahhh!" I shrieked as my bones caught on fire. My body began to tremble, I felt myself slip away.

_It's time._

No!

My legs began to disappear, then my hands up to my shoulders, then my stomach and chest, followed by my head, then soon my hazel eyes. I wasn't out for too long. In an instant, my eyes opened, fangs pierced through my lips, and my body crouched as I hissed. They were all standing before me, terrified. Stan, Alma, Kayla, Lexie, Malik, Edward, Aunt Maggie, Vlad, and my prince. All I thought about in that moment was, blood.

"Alexa," Edward spoke.

"Try fighting the thirst," he said unsettled.

"I can't," I choked, a tear ran down the cheek Mason had stroke.

"I need it," I began to shiver.

"Come with us," he said.

"We'll get you something to drink." My nose sensed the scent of sweet cotton candy, alcoholic, tempting, humans. I hissed involuntarily. My body then sprinted towards the ball.

"Alexa no!" Mason yelled. I suddenly got a burst of sour sugar coated candy, alcoholic, tempting, vampires. I then thought of Stephen, and I tried pulling back. I then headed to the mountains.

"Alexa!" Mason chased after me. He then lunched himself on to me, we both fell down a steep hill. His legs jabbed my waist, his hands pinned my wrists.

"Help me," I cried.

"Fight it! Follow me! Crave my blood," he said as he ran into a thin layer of tress. I chased after him involuntarily once again. I ran after him for miles, ran until I caught the smell of a vulnerable animal, deer. I stopped following Mason's poisoning perfume and headed to my prey. It stood still, picking at the weeds with dismembered flowers. I lurked behind a thick tree, admired its enhanced beauty. The texture of its fur and antlers. I admired its neck until my thirst took control and launched itself onto it. The deer kicked and wailed. Its hoofs fidgeted, twitched one last time. I had no emotion, mercy was out of the question at the moment. I drained it until the last drop ran down my throat.

_Much better?_

Yes.

I stood up and caught Mason's figure standing a few feet away. He took small, hesitant, steps toward me. I wondered if this was one of his fears as well. When he was only inches from me, he wiped the trickle of weak blood from the corner of my lips and licked his finger. He then smiled and then kissed me deeply, not scared of breaking me, of biting my lips as it bled and he licked it while I bit and sucked his.

"Happy bloody sixteen," he purred.


	17. Chapter 17: New Me

**Hey guys, I am sooooooo sorry I have not updated any chapters. My life took an unexpected turn. Believe me, I have tried to write and publish my chapters, but I have no laptop now. I wrote this chapter as an email message to myself, that's how much I really want this story to continue. I hope you guys enjoy this, I will try to write more chapters on my free time because work is kiilling me, so here's chapter 17. I just wanted to explain myself and apologize. Enjoy :)**

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Chapter 17

New Me

The seconds seemed to pass slowly. The hours seemed to drag on. And the days were always forgotten. I had all the time in the world to analyze every corner of the Earth, but reality still hadn't sunk in. A good thing that came from the change was that I no longer had to wake up to go to a school that was no challenge to the knowledge I now possessed. The downfall was that I now had to train to fight for what they were telling me was the moral thing to do. I had no say in it, not only because they were forcing me, but to know that their empty life's depended on me, that was a responsibility that was weighing on the edge of my palms. I had to be strong. I had to have faith. I wish they knew that all the strength and faith that I had had left with my grandparents. But I can't tell them that, it wouldn't have mattered anyway. This was me. This is was what they were waiting for. I have already let down my father and my grandparents; I can't let them down now.

"Are you alright?" Vlad took a seat next to me on the back porch of Mason's home.

"Are vampires able to feel?" I asked sarcastically.

"It seems like you are." I laid my head on his shoulder.

"I believe in you," he whispered this time.

"You're only saying that because you have to."

"I don't have to. Just ask Kayla how many times I tell her she wears too much make-up, and it does not look good," he chuckled.

"What if I never possess my special abilities?"

"They will come eventually. You can't give up now." I stood up and folded my arms before my chest.

"It's been a week now Vlad, and nothing has happened. We're doomed. I can see it in the Conclave's eyes whenever I fail to fight back."

"You can't let that kind of thinking get to you. You have to push harder."

"It's easy for you to say."

"I'm not going to lie to you Alexa. It is easy for me to say it, but it's hard for me to watch you fall." He came up from behind and kissed my head.

"I believe in you. If only you believed in yourself." With those words said, he walked away.

The war hadn't begun yet, and I was already on the verge of losing hope. I was good enough to fight with the skills I had learned during training, but skills weren't going to save me or the vampire race, or even worse, the human race. I don't know what exactly Kayla has been seeing, but these stupid abilities were sure taking their time to arrive. They seemed more like teasers rather than special abilities. Because of them, I had been hurt three times by the Conclave's special trainers. They sure know how not to give mercy.

I walked back inside to find Vlad and Kayla eating each other's face. It only made me miss Mason even more. I hadn't seen him for a week now. I don't think hunting really takes that long. But, I prefer to believe otherwise because only by thinking that he was avoiding me caused a sting on my useless heart. They say he isn't, but only Mason knows the truth.

I shook my head and made my way into the human decorated kitchen, Malik was sitting on one of the high chairs sucking on a bendy straw. His eyes shifted right onto mine once I was standing across from him, counter in between us.

"Hey," his voice was strong.

"Hi," my voice squeaked. Good thing I no longer blushed. Bad thing, I still felt the awkward silence that fell between us.

"So," I tried to conversant.

"So," he mocked.

"How's Lexie?"

"Good." My eyes fell in disbelief.

"Really, good is all it is?" Malik looked down and began to play with the straw.

"Sorry, I'm not really good at making conversation." I gave an unnecessary sigh.

"Sorry for putting you in this situation," I told him.

"Well, how's it going?"

"I'd be lying if I said it has been peachy."

"What's making it un-peachy?" I looked down at the counter while my finger traced a circle over and over again.

"You mean besides the fact that I am a total zero instead of a hero?" My voice cracked.

"It's him, isn't it?" He had a look of awe in his eyes that gave me a sting. I let my head drop onto my chilled forearm.

"Don't beat yourself up."

"How would you feel if Lexie all of a sudden disappeared and she didn't even try to call you to reassure you she was okay or why she left in the first place!" I snapped on him. He remained silent.

"I'm sorry," I whispered.

"No, it's okay. I don't understand. I've always had Lexie, and if she ever did disappear, I know I would be feeling what you're feeling about Mason."

"Have you talked to him?" He shook his head.

"I know why he left," he said, his eyes staring at the counter.

"Why?"

"You," he said in a quick second and disappeared.

"Me," I whispered to myself.

I stood still looking at the miniature window above the silver sink. If my heart were still beating, It would have exploded as soon as Malik said I was the reason Mason left. So, he was avoiding me. I sped off into the darkness of the trees. They were still telling one another their secrets. I wondered if they knew everyone else's. I stopped in a small opening where there was a massive bark of tree lying helplessly on the dried grass. I collapsed near it, placed my knees before my chest, placed my head on top of them, and began to cry.

My sobs began a chant of sorrow. The wind tried to wipe my tears away. I began to yell.

"Is this what you want! I'm here you bastard! Come and get me!" I began to sob once again.

"Why mom? Why did you give up your life for me? This wouldn't have happened if you would have just let him kill me." The trees began to sway more. Even the leafs that laid beneath their roots lifted themselves off of the ground.

"I hate to see a girl cry," beckoned a velvet voice from behind me. I stood up and turned to face him. He made his way towards me and brushed away the tear from my left cheek.

"Stephen," was all I said. He pulled me in, and I let him. His right hand stroke my hair as I buried my face into his chest.

"How's the life of a vampire?"

"It sucks." He chuckled. I heard the vibration behind his throat.

"Where's Mason? I'm surprised he hasn't showed up to hiss at me."

"He's gone." Stephen pulled me back to get a good look at me.

"He's not dead dead. He's just gone."

"Why did he leave you behind?"

"Apparently I'm the reason he left." I looked down at the broken twigs. Stephen placed his fingers around my chin and lifted my head up to face him.

"That is the stupidest thing he has ever done," Stephen said with a smirk. It kind of made me half smile.

"Do you have anything to do right now?"

"I actually have to get back for my training." Stephen's eyes smiled.

"May I come?" I shrugged.

"Sure, but nothing interesting will happen." Stephen got a hold of my hand and pulled me towards the house. I noticed everyone was waiting on the back porch, and the Conclave trainer was on his usual position ready to attack. I pushed Stephen out of the way as soon as I saw him launch himself towards me.

I dodged his foot and spun around to kick him on his abdominal region. He fell back and then got into a crouching position. He sprinted towards me, lifted his body up into the sky, and let himself fall towards me as if I were the X that marked the spot. I moved to my right side quick and launched myself at him. We both fell together, my arms wrapped around his waist. He elbowed my side, lifted me up from my neck, and he threw me toward a tree. I hissed as my fangs appeared above my lower lip and sprinted towards him as he sprinted towards me as if we were jousting. He then jumped up and when he was coming back down to the ground, his fist pounded against the ground causing it to lift itself up as a wave and throw me up from the ground to collapse back down.

"She looks hot," I heard Stephen say and noticed Vlad glare at him. That moment became a distraction that the trainer took as an advantage. He pinned me down to the ground, both hands wrapped tight around my neck as he squeezes hoping I would ooze out between his long fingers. It was unbearable. I could feel my neck crack inch by inch.

"Try to save yourself," I heard the trainer growl.

"Come on Alexa, you can do it," I heard Vlad say. I closed my eyes and tried to imagine a better place, or at least a place away from the grips of this savage. I felt his grip loosen bit by bit and opened my eyes. His butterscotch eyes were in shock, I turned my gaze to everyone else, and they had same expression. I lifted my right arm and it was disappearing and appearing like the flickering of a light bulb.

I tried to focus on getting away to my haven, but my energy was being drained. It wasn't until I let out a yelp, and I was on the other side of the backyard, my body limping against the tree I had collapsed onto. I heard gasps and oh my gods, but it wasn't long until my body shut down and there was nothing but black.

When I awoke, Vlad was sitting on the sofa chair hunched over. He lifted his head to meet my eyes, and when they did, he rushed to my side.

"You did it," he spoke with a smile.

"How did you do it?" It took me a while to reply to him because I was still trying to get my conscious back.

"I-I don't know," I stuttered.

"I-I just imagined a better place and pushed myself to get there."

"Well, my darling sister, you are a teleport."

"Is that possible, I mean, to have the same ability?"

"Well, I don't see why not. I mean, we are family after all."

"But, Kayla, Mason, and Alma have different abilities."

"Well, you are talking to the wrong person about this, but I believe, in theory, that teleportation is just stronger in our family." I laid my head back down.

"That's my girl! You looked hot put there," Stephen's voice boomed. Vlad stood up quick and glared at him.

"She's not your girl," Vlad spoke through gritted teeth.

"Well, if Mason doesn't show up any sooner, then she will. Unless, Xavier beats me to it." I heard a hissing noise come from behind Stephen. He grew a smile on his face a he turned around to face them.

"Oh, poor Kayla was hoping to have Alexa as a sister-in-law," Stephen teased her.

"Mason or not, she would still be my sister-in-law idiot," she sneered.

"What are you doing here anyway?"

"I came to dee Alexa and support her, unlike Mason."

"You don't know anything," she hissed. Stephen ignored her and kneeled down beside me.

"You still have my number, right?" I nodded.

"Call me whenever you get lonely," he said and winked at me before leaving the house.

"Can you believe this guy," Vlad snorted.

"Yes I can," I retorted and sat up.

"Alexa, you can't be serious," Kayla said in distress.

"When have I not been serious?"

"Alexa, Mason won't be happy if he finds out you're talking, or even spending time with Stephen," Vlad said exasperated.

"You said it Vlad, if he finds out, which I'm not sure he will since he hasn't even bothered coming back," I sneered. I stood up to head to the room Kayla and Alma had prepared for me.

"Alexa," Kayla groaned. I stopped without turning to face her.

"He will come back."

"When?"

"I don't exactly know the specific date, but he will." I continued up to my room.

"Alexa," I heard her call after me, but I shut it out as soon as I closed the bedroom door behind me.

I stood by the window that showed the backyard. I laid my head against the glass that was at the same temperature as me.

_You know he won't come back._

Why not?

"The new me," I whispered to myself and caught my reflection on the glass window.

"The new me."


	18. Chapter 18: Are We Having Fun Yet?

**Hey there again, this chapter may be a bit short, but it's all I can manage for now, but believe me that there is a lot more to come. Enjoy :)!**

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Chapter 18

Are we having fun yet?

I spent most of all day of yesterday and today standing in my room looking out the window while the atmosphere was full of songs with lyrics that got me more depressed than I had already been. It didn't help the fact that Roger Rabbit, by Sleeping with Sirens, played next on my iPod:

Is there a right way for how this goes?

You've got your friends and you've got your foes

They want a piece of something hot

Forget your name like they forgot

Oh, ain't that something?

Some wanna see you crash and burn

Criticize your every word

I'm trying to keep from going insane

Ain't that the way of this whole damn thing?

Oh, trying to be something…more

This part made me contemplate on the whole killing-my-father-to-save-innocent-people, if you can call them innocent, but compared to him, I'm sure we all are. The chorus only made me miss Mason even more. Flashbacks of the only moments we had started replaying in my head, even if some weren't great memories, they were still worth missing. I turned off the music because I began to irritate myself, and I'm sure everyone left in the household was irritated as well, even if they hadn't come barging in to drag me out to get a hold on myself. I'm sure they understood that I needed to be left alone, but alone I did not want to be anymore.

I pulled out my phone and started surfing through my contacts. The only person I wanted to be with at the moment was with Mason, so I decided to call. _Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring._ Then, it went straight to voicemail. I wouldn't have gotten as hurt as I was at the moment if his voicemail was of him saying to leave a message after the tone, but the stupid machine was the one letting me know he didn't want to talk to me. I sighed. The only option I had now was Stephen. _Ring. Ring._

"Alexa," he purred from the other end of the line. My human skin would have grown goose-bumps.

"St-Stephen?"

"How can I be of great help, beautiful?"

"I need to get distracted," my voice blurted out as if it knew I wouldn't have the guts to say so myself.

"What kind of distraction?" he purred once again.

"Not a dirty one, if that's what you're expecting," I snorted.

"Well, I guess we can go somewhere and hang out," his voice was back to his normal velvet one. My lips spread a smile.

"Great."

"I'll be there in ten," he said and hung up.

I sat at the corner of my full bed to bend over and slip on my shoes. I suddenly got this ache in my un-beating heart, and I knew I felt guilty because at that moment Mason's face appeared behind my eyes. I closed my eyes and opened them again to try and wipe his image away. I succeeded, yet still felt the ache.

_You know he'll get mad._

Don't start.

_I'm just warning you._

It's not like he's coming back.

_Patience is key._

I have no time for patience. _Honk!_

I have to go.

I jumped out my window so no one would stop me to ask where I was going, and I wouldn't have to tell them I was going to hang out with Stephen. I pulled open his car door and hadn't closed it yet when he sped off. I turned to glare at him.

"What, I'm sure you wanted to get out of there as soon as possible, I was just trying to be helpful." My face had softened. I turned to face out the window and admired the trees and leaves as they swayed freely. I laid my head on the window glass and closed my eyes trying to find Mason's eyes full with awe, but he didn't appear.

"Where are we going?"

"To an underground vampire club." He turned and gave me a huge grin that tried to show enthusiasm, but clearly made me flinch in my seat.

"I will come back alive, right?" Stephen chuckled.

"You're a vampire now, and you're training to fight a war, and you're able to teleport. Now, you're terrified of dying at a night club? That makes no sense at all."

"I guess I just work backwards," I whispered loud enough for him to hear. He gave out a light laugh.

"Believe me; you have nothing to worry about. Tonight, it's all about having fun and letting go." After that, he drove in silence, and I closed my eyes, searching for Mason once more.

Stephen pulled up into an abandoned ally where on this massive, abandoned building was a solid door. Stephen knocked a certain rhythm and the doors slid gently to my left. Red eyes appeared and disappeared to let us in. Stephen pulled me down a flight of stairs, and the lower we got the louder the music became. It sounded much more gentle at the door. The room was dark. Green, blue, yellow, and pink streaks of light danced about in the room. My nostrils flared up as they received a parched, sour, scent, vampires. Stephen pulled me towards the bar.

"What can I get for you?" a man with slick, dark, brown hair pulled back into a petite ponytail asked us as his smile was mostly fangs.

"Two spiked ravens," Stephen said. I lifted my left eyebrow at him.

"You'll enjoy it, it's for beginners," he tried to tease. I gave him a light snort.

"What makes you think I'm a beginner?" I placed my arms before my fair chest.

"Oh, "he smirked. The bartender gave him our drinks.

"Well then, I guess we drown this and go for a stronger drink." I went for the glass and chugged it down in less than two seconds. I looked up to see his eyes and his glass was still on his thin bottom lip, his eyes were wide, stunned. He then chugged it down and whispered into the bartender's ear. The bartender smirked and handed him two tinted glass cups.

"Here," he said as he placed the glass near my lips. It smelled intoxicating, yet sweet with a punch of sourness.

"What is it?" I gave him an eerie look.

"You came here to have fun, right?"

"I came here to get distracted," I said with my arms still placed before my chest.

"Fun is your distraction, now drink up. The night is always young," he said with a side smirk. I got a hold of the cup and downed the liquid that burned my esophagus. My eyes squinted a bit and then popped right out of its sockets. The drink gave me a sudden burst of energy and I slammed the cup before the bartender, hoping he understood I wanted another round like in the movies. He gave me a bright smile as he handed me another one. I downed it as well and was about to slam it once more until a firm hand caught my wrist.

"Slow down there, I still want you conscious so you can enjoy the night," Stephen said in amusement. I placed the cup gently down. The bartender filled it up again, but this time I just took a sip.

"I didn't take you for a drinker," Stephen spoke again through the loud techno music. I shrugged, lifting my shoulders up to my ears and letting them fall back into their place.

"Never underestimate a girl, especially one that comes from bad blood." I took another sip of the bright, red liquid.

"Care to dance," he said as he placed his hand before me. I took it, and he led me into the water of vampires. He spun me around, pulled me from my waist into him, and began to sway to the beat. I felt him nozzle into my hair, and neck, and took a slight sniff of me.

"You smell even more delicious," he purred. Involuntarily, my lips outstretched themselves into a smile. I pulled myself into him even more. We must have been dancing for hours because the clock had already struck eleven. We made our way back to the bar to get more of the vivid, red liquid.

"Cheers," I said as I hit my glass against his and I almost felt it crack.

"Whoa, easy girl," he said, and we both laughed. We couldn't stop laughing after that, and I believed it was mostly the drink laughing for us. We laughed so hard that we fell into each other. His forehead was against mine for a couple of seconds, it then tilted to the side to get closer to my face. I could smell the liquid in his breath as it came closer to my lips. Right then and there, our lips pulled into each other, and began to dance to the rhythm of the sound alike the way our bodies had done just a couple of minutes ago.

I felt his tongue slide into my mouth as my tongue began to fight with it. His lips became so desperate that I felt him pushing me backwards into a corner as he began to drag my arms up against the wall above my head. I tried to hold back a moan, but my lips were beginning to part to let it out. The only thing that stopped it from happening was these two massive hands that pulled Stephen off of me.

"The party is over," I heard a male growl. I was trying to concentrate on putting a face on his voice.

"Whoa man, we just wanted to have some fun," Stephen said lazily, almost laughing.

"Stay away from her," the voice sneered. I then felt someone throw me over their shoulders.

"Say, bye to Stephen," the grouchy voice commanded.

"Bye to Stephen," my voice squeaked as I tried to hold back some laughter.

"It's not my fault she wants to be with me!" I heard Stephen shout from behind the staircase.

"She needs me Vlad! She needs me!" My body was thrown into the back of a tiny car. At least, the back felt like the walls were caving in on me.

"Ouch," I said and laughed.

"You are in big trouble little girl," Vlad sneered. I tried to sit up as he sped away, but stumbled back down. The second time I was able to sit up and place a kiss on Vlad's cheek.

"I love you," a hiccup escaped from the back of my throat. I heard him sigh as my eye lids began to fall. The magic of alcohol, making vampire's pass out.

The next day I awoke with a soft pounding in my head. I stood up fast and fell back down onto my made bed. I got back up in my human speed and made my way down to the kitchen.

"Well, looks like the dead has finally woken up," Kayla teased in her booming, feminine voice.

"Are the dead able to have such headaches?" I sneered back.

"Looks like the dead woke up on the wrong side of the coffin," she snickered.

"Put a sock in it," I growled. She began to laugh.

"Heads up, you're not the only one who's in a bad mood today," she said as her eyebrows lifted up and fell back down. I then remembered Vlad was the one who brought me back home after Stephen and I-.

_Run!_

I gulped. I stood up to rush out the house, but I ended up crashing into a hard chest.

"Going somewhere?" I heard a low growl. I gulped once more before placing my eyes into his gaze. May I say a menacing gaze.

"H-H-Hi," I managed to choke out.

"What a lovely day it is today. I was thinking we should go outside and enjoy the weather, and maybe even forget what happened last night," I said the last part in the lowest whisper I could manage. I pulled him by his arm, but he pulled away.

"What were you thinking Alexa?!" he slammed his cold hands onto the counter. My body sort of jumped.

"I was thinking about getting some sun, some natural vitamin-D. There has to be a way to not be so pale," I said trying to keep him from talking about last night.

"Alexa," he growled from the back of his throat, spreading it through his gritted teeth.

"Vlad." He let out a sigh as his hands brushed against his face in desperation.

"Something bad could have happened to you," he said in a more gentler tone.

"Well, something didn't, and I am more than capable of taking care of myself," I shot at him.

"I'm supposed to be the one that's angry at you."

"What's the big deal?" I whined.

"What's the big deal?" he asked in disbelief.

"Yes, I'm just a girl who wants to have a little bit of fun, especially since I'm so stressed about the whole war I have to end," I grunted. He sighed.

"I understand you're in a lot of pressure, but Stephen, Alexa?" he pointed his hand to no one.

"Well, he's the only one I can be with without having to think or talk about this whole situation with the Conclave and father."

"Is it just that?" Vlad narrowed his eyes at me. I looked away from his gaze. He placed his hands on my shoulder and began to massage them.

"You know, Mason would have killed Stephen if he had been the one to catch you in complete tongue action," he snickered trying to lighten the mood. I stood up quickly away from him to face him.

"Mason has no right to do that!" Vlad raised his hands up in surrender.

"Alexa-" I cut him off.

"No! Mason has no right to do that. I can do as I please! Mason is not my father, my older brother, husband, boyfriend, or whatever authority figure there is possible! It's my life, and I can do as I please! It's my mouth, and I can kiss who I please! So stop mentioning Mason! He's gone, and it sure seems like he doesn't plan on coming back!" A tear slipped from my left eye. I stormed out of the kitchen and into the backyard, slamming the glass door behind me, letting them know I wanted to be left alone and curled myself into a ball.

I looked up at the sky, picturing Mason standing tall before me , and began to sang a part from How you remind me, from Nickelback, "It's not like you didn't know that. I said I love you and I swear I still do. And it must have been so bad, 'cause living with me must have damn near killed you. And this is how you remind me of what I really am. This is how you remind me of what I really am. It's not like you to say sorry. I was waiting on a different story. This time I'm mistaken for handing you a heart worth breaking, and I've been wrong, I've been down, been to the bottom of every bottle. These five words in my head scream, 'Are we having fun yet?'"


	19. Chapter 19: Fight For Me

Chapter 19

Fight for me

Another week passed, and I had gotten my ability on check. The Conclave believed they needed to step–up their training and got me a new guy to tear me into shreds. He was 5'9, mid-built in his physical appearance. He had the ability to blind people, and he sure did use it a lot. You will not believe how many times he pummeled my body into the dirt of the backyard.

"Focus!" he yelled at me. The good part about this one was that he was more motivating than the first one. I don't even recall hearing the first trainer talk. The bad part was that he seemed to have anger issues. All he ever did was yell at me, which really pissed me off. Deep down I hoped he was using it as a tactic.

"Focus!" he yelled at me for the fiftieth time.

"I am!" I retaliated. He blinded me once more, but this time I felt a breeze from behind me, so I teleported to appear behind him and kicked him forward to ride him like a surfboard on top of the cut green grass, I then teleported in front of him.

"See," I sneered. He gave me a smirk.

"It took you long enough." I rolled my eyes and teleported myself into the kitchen. I made my way toward the refrigerator to get some blood. These past two days I've been eating food to restore my energy, but my body demanded blood.

"You okay?" Vlad appeared before me. I nodded while taking a sip from my cup.

"You did great." He placed his right hand on my shoulder.

"If getting tackled down into a patch of mud like a scrawny football player means doing great, than I must be doing fucking amazing." Vlad removed his hand from my shoulder and looked away.

"I'm sorry," I whispered, toying with my red cup.

"It's alright, you're just under a lot of stress," he whispered. I nodded softly.

"I talked to Mason," he said a bit louder from before. My head flinched up to look at him just to reassure myself he wasn't messing with me.

"When? What did he say? Is he coming back?" I began to close the space between us. He placed his hands in front of me indicating to stop coming closer.

"A few days ago, he said he was heading back to school. I guess that answers your last question, but in case you didn't capture it, yes, he's come back."

"What?! Why didn't you tell me this before?!" I shrieked. He took a step back.

"I didn't want you to get distracted from your training. Knowing you, you would have fled right out of here to go see him." I smacked him across his upper arm.

"Ouch, Alexa!" He rubbed the spot that took the beating.

"I'm sorry, I just," I couldn't find any words to say.

"Alexa, don't get too excited," he spoke softly. I turned my gaze towards his.

"Vlad, how can I not get excited?" I whispered as my gaze fell to the marbled, kitchen floor and then back at him. He looked away quickly and gave me his back. I furrowed my eyebrows.

"Why do I feel like you're not telling me something?" Vlad kept his back to me as he slid his fingers through his thick dark, ash, brown hair.

"Vlad?" My stomach made itself into a knot when he didn't reply to me. All of a sudden my mind became flooded with negative thoughts.

_Mason found himself another girl._

_Mason doesn't want to see you._

_Mason hates you!_

"Vlad!" he flinched a bit, but didn't turn around. I quickly moved my body to face him face to face. My eyes must have had a look of despair because he mirrored pity in his.

"Mason," he paused for five seconds.

"It's best if you forget what happened between you and Mason." I took a step back. My ears couldn't take in his words. Forget, how was I supposed to forget? It's not like it was all part of my imagination. It was real. Him, me, we were real.

I teleported myself out of the kitchen and into my room before I ended up choking him to take back his words. Mason couldn't possibly believe that what happened between us was just a lie.

_Of course he would, it's Mason we're talking about._

No, Mason accepts us. He wants us,

_Us, if Mason accepted us, or even wanted us, he wouldn't have ditched us in the first place!_

He was only scared, worried.

_Who are you trying to fool?_

"Shut up!" I smacked my head with both of my hands. I then heard a knock on my door.

"Alexa?" I heard the familiar voice ring in my head. I rushed to the door, opened it, and pulled her in to me. I heard her gasp.

"Alexa can't breathe. I'm still a puny human," she squealed. I let her go immediately.

"I'm so sorry. I'm just glad to see you," I said with gloom.

"I miss you too," she smiled. I went in for a gentler hug.

"What brings you to my dome?" I tried to lighten the mood. She giggled.

"Well, definitely not Malik because he fears you still aren't able to contain your thirst, especially since you are training and are blood hungry, but you seem to prove otherwise," she said as she gave my hand a squeeze.

"Thank you for believing in me."

"I know you're a strong girl." I smiled.

"So, how did you get here?" I noticed her fidget in her seat, and I heard her heartbeat pick up the pace.

"Lexie?"

"Mason," she whispered. My eyes grew wide.

"Where is he?" I asked desperately.

"In the living-"I didn't let her finish because I teleported myself to the living room. To my luck, I appeared a couple of feet away from him. His green blue eyes expanded as he realized what I had just done. He didn't rush to my side though, and neither did I. We just stood still looking at one another.

"Um, I'm going to get some fresh air," Vlad said as he pulled Kayla by the waist and teleported to the backyard with her.

"I'm going to go ahead and cook something for Lexie," Alma said as she headed to the kitchen with Stanley and Malik right on her heels. Then, there were two. I don't know exactly how long we stood their facing each other, but it took long enough for me to feel the sudden burst of electricity wrap itself around us. I know he felt it too because he then looked away from me.

"Must I always make the first move?" I growled. He quickly turned to meet my green-hazel eyes. There they were his crystal eyes filled with awe.

"Don't look at me that way," I sneered, but you can sense the hurt behind each word. I noticed he flinched.

"Cat finally caught your tongue," I pressed.

"Enough," he growled. I wasn't surprised. I held my glare. He tried to keep his, but it slowly began to soften.

"Alexa, "he sighed.

"No bullshit Mason Hastings," I caught myself say through gritted teeth. His lips twitched into a smirk.

"You haven't changed a bit, maybe just a bit more assertive, but you're completely there," he said in a lighter tone.

"What did you expect?" He shrugged.

"A bitchy ice queen thirsty for power."

"Well, sorry for the disappointment." He took a step closer to me.

"Oh, I'm not disappointed. I'm pleased." He took another step closer.

"You were gone for quite a while," I whispered. He closed the gap between us.

"I apologize for that," he whispered as his hand reached for my cheek.

"Apology not accepted," I snarled and moved around him so I wouldn't face him and let him touch me.

"Alexa," he sighed once more.

"Don't Mason, I'm tired of talking." I teleported myself to the woods.

I let myself fall to the ground and leaned my back against a young oak. I pulled my head back into the trunk, then forward, and then back. I let my eyes set on the gloomy clouds that leaned against one another. Then, I pulled my knees up to my chest and let my chin sit on top of them.

"I want to run back to you, but I mustn't show weakness," I whispered to the leaves that enfolded themselves with the rigid twigs. I shut my eyes, blinking longer than I should have, but when I opened them again, I could no longer see Mother Nature's true colors.

I stood up quick and listened for his presence. My right shoulder felt a light touch of air glaze it, and I immediately brought my arm up, placed it horizontally straight, and stiffened it as a fist engulfed my hand. Suddenly, I felt a vibrant texture of skin crash into it. He sneered as he round kicked me from below, causing me to fall forwards. I stood back up, nostrils flaring as they tried to sniff his scent. He was to my left, but I did not run towards him. Instead, I ran straight ahead and teleported to appear behind him. I round kicked him in return. I heard him grunt, and my lips picked up into a smirk.

"What's the matter? You can't fight me without blinding me?" I heard the growl that started from his chest and ended through his teeth. I ignored him and made the most stupid move I could ever do before my predator. I gave him my back. Suddenly, he tackled me down, and we both rolled down a miniature hill. He then gave me my vision back, and I gasped when I noticed he was hovering over me, his hands pinning down my wrists. A grin crept up his face.

"Not so tough now, are you?" I groaned.

"Will you just get off of me," I demanded.

He threw his left leg over my body to meet his right leg as his hands released my wrists. We then both just laid on the pasture, beneath the rustling leaves that clung to their branches. After a minute, he spoke again," You're not as bad as you seem." I turned my head to catch a glimpse of his face. He seemed at peace, sincere.

"I would have figured you'd know better than to underestimate someone's ability." I saw the corner of his lips perk up into a smile.

"You got me." I turned my gaze back to the trees.

"Don't you ever get tired of fighting?" I whispered.

"Don't you ever get tired of worrying?" he said back.

"How could I not?"

"You think you are weak in the aspect of combat, but the only thing making you weak is yourself. You're strong Alexa, you don't see it, but I do. You always have this game face on, determination written all over it. You don't stop until you get what you want, until you are satisfied." I flinched and turned to look at him. It felt weird to hear him say my name, better yet to acknowledge me.

"What if-"

"You mustn't ponder on what ifs. The ifs won't help you succeed, but the nows, the now's will," he cut me off as he finally turned to look me in the eyes.

"Wow, not only are you a trainer, but a therapist as well," I tried to tease. It made him chuckle. I like this side of him. The calmer side that made me actually want to talk to him and ask for advice, not the angry hulk that hid beneath it all.

"What's your name?" He lifted his left eyebrow as my question dug through his ear drums.

"Calvin," he simply said.

"Nice to meet you Calvin."

"Nice to meet you Alexa." That made me smile.

"I have to head on out," he said abruptly as he stood up and dusted himself. I did as well.

"I should be heading back home as well. I don't want them to worry." He placed his hand in front of me and I got a hold on it.

"Until next time," he said in a velvet tone.

"Until next time," I smiled. With that being said, he disappeared. I teleported myself back to my room.

As soon as I appeared near my bed, I let myself fall backwards, trusting the foam mattress would catch me, and so it did.

_That Calvin boy is pretty cute._

Shut up.

_Oh please, don't tell me that least the human you did not blush just a bit._

I did no such thing!

_What's wrong with him?_

Nothing.

_It's Mason, isn't it?_

Don't remind me of him.

_Oh, I don't have to; you already do that part for me._

Go away!

_Fine by me, but I wouldn't waste my time if I were you. _

Here's the funny thing, you are me.

I stood up to face the window. I memorized that scenery before me. Leavers were beginning to depart from their branches as they knew that winter was just around the corner. The trees bend over, trying to catch their precious leaves, but failed to do so and just limped to the side, almost as if they were dead. I suddenly felt a pinch on my heart.

"I feel your pain buddy." I turned away from the window and leaned my back against the headboard.

I always thought vampires were supposed to be cold hearted, I mean, their skins already were. They never seemed to feel guilty whenever they would kill innocent people, although we aren't always so innocent. I never imagined a vampire falling in love with a human, but Malik and Lexie seemed to prove otherwise. Being half-vampire half-human, well make that 80% vampire and 20% human, I'm constantly on this emotional rollercoaster ride, it doesn't help the fact that I'm also a hormonal teenage girl.

Anyway, going back to the subject about vampires falling in love with the humans, I wonder if my father ever really did love my mother. If he did love her, why hadn't he tried to change her before he impregnated her? Maybe then, my mother wouldn't have died giving birth to me and we wouldn't be in this mess to begin with. But then again, maybe I would have never been born. I would have never gotten to know Vlad, Kayla, Malik, Lexie, and the others. More importantly, I would have never been Mason's soul mate.

_Calm your hormones down._

Why don't you calm them down?

_No matter what, Alexa, you will never be Mason's girlfriend, even more so his soul mate._

That's not true!

_Well, can you tell me where he is now?_

I closed my eyes and sighed.

"I can't isolate myself anymore." I teleported into the living room where everyone was sitting, acting like normal people.

"So," I boomed and they all flinched.

"You okay?" Vlad asked. I nodded. He then turned his gaze to Mason, who stood up to stand next to the fireplace. He gestured his hand to the spot where he was sited. I hesitantly made my way.

"I'm glad you guys made up. Now, Stephen can be out of the picture and I can fully have Alexa as my sister-in-law," Kayla said cheerfully. I shot her a glare, but Mason put up another show.

"What do you mean by Stephen being out of the picture?" he growled and then turned to me. I stood up quickly, the human me must have had a steamy, red face.

"It's none of your business, and Mason and I didn't make up!"

"How is it none of my business? What did you do with Stephen?" he sneered.

"Watch you're tone with me Mason. You're not my father, my brother, nor my boyfriend to be getting your panties in a twat! What I do is my business!"

"So what, Stephen is your boyfriend now? Is that why you didn't let me touch you?!" I couldn't take the heat anymore. I did what I do best. I shrieked and stormed out into the backyard.

"I'm not finished with you!" Mason yelled after me.

"Well, I am!" I shrieked without looking at him. I slid the glass door open and slammed it shut. Then, he did the same.

"Tell me!" I huffed, turned around with bloodshot eyes.

"I went to a vampire club with him, got wasted, and had a really sensational make-out session with him! There, I said it!" The pain that flashed in his eyes was unbearable that I felt horrible and wanted to take back every word I had said.

Mason just stood there, looking down at the ground. I could have sworn I saw his body tremble, and I know it was from pure anger.

"I'm going to kill him," he sneered.

"No you're not." He quickly looked at me, his eyes dark grey. I gasped.

"Mason," I sighed. I then let my butt fall on the back steps, placed my elbows on my knees, and put my head in between my hands. I felt his knee touch mine.

"Why, Alexa?" I heard it, his voice filled with hurt.

"I-"I gulped my tears back.

"You left me Mason. Stephen was there for me, he made me feel wanted, special. It didn't bug him that I became what I am now. You rushed out of here as soon as I transformed. Right after that kiss. Did that mean nothing to you?" I felt the tears coming.

"Alexa," he stopped and said no more. I stood up. This was too much disappointment that I could handle.

"Wait," he said as he pulled me into him, his hands cupping my waist, forehead to forehead, and I could feel his breath on my lips.

"How can I make it up to you?"

"Make it up to me? Mason, it's not like if you forgot my birthday, this is so much more," I shrieked.

"I-I, just tell me how to make it better between us." I grunted lightly.

"You should really figure that out on your own. I'm not the one who fucked up first," I said as I gave him my back. My hand was already cupping the handle to open the door before he yelled after me.

I looked over my shoulder to catch his eyes and said, "Fight for me."


End file.
